Jamaica’s men were the only Caribbean nation to crack the top ten for the most points accumulated at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon in July.

The team, who is in a rebuilding phase after dominating men’s track and field for almost a decade, finished in a three-way tie for fifth on the table with 20 points. Eight points are accumulated for first place and a point for eighth.

Hosts USA, thanks to standout performances from the likes of Noah Lyles, Michael Norman and Fred Kerley to name a few, absolutely dominated the Championships and finished at the top of the table with 118 points.

The rest of the top ten was rounded out by Kenya (46), Great Britain (28), Canada (24), Jamaica (20), Ethiopia (20), Uganda (20), Norway (17), Spain (17) and South Africa (12).

Jamaica’s only medal came in the 4x400m where the team of Akeem Bloomfield, Jevaughn Powell, Nathon Allen and Christopher Taylor ran 2:58.58 for silver behind the USA.

They also finished just outside the medals in the 4x100m where Akeem Blake, Oblique Seville, Yohan Blake and Jelani Walker combined to run 38.06 to finish behind Canada (37.48), USA (37.55) and Great Britain (37.83).

Individually, Seville had the best performance finishing fourth in the 100m in 9.97 behind the American trio of Fred Kerley (9.86), Marvin Bracy (9.88) and Trayvon Bromell (9.88).

Jamaica’s other two individual finalists to place in the top eight were Jaheel Hyde who finished sixth in the 400m Hurdles and Christopher Taylor who finished seventh in the 400m.

2022 World Championship 400m bronze medallist Sada Williams was controversially left out of Barbados’ Independence Awards as the country celebrated their 56^th year of independence on Wednesday.

Barbadian journalist Mike King described the omission of Williams from the list of awardees as “shocking” and “inexcusable” in a Facebook post.

“To leave World Championship bronze medallist Sada Williams out of the Independence Awards is a national scandal. Members of Cabinet should hold their heads down in shame,” he added.

Williams enjoyed a career best 2022 season in the one lap event.

In July, she ran a personal best and national record 49.75 for bronze at the World Championships in Eugene. She followed that up in August by winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 49.90 and silver at the NACAC Championships in Freeport in 49.86.

In addition to those medals, Williams also enjoyed four top three finishes on the Diamond League circuit last season. She finished third in Monaco and second in Lausanne and Brussels before crossing the line third once again at the Diamond League final in Zurich.

After a career spanning two decades and characterized by fast times and world records but blighted by injury and unfulfilled potential, Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell has called time on his career.

One of the fastest men to have ever lived, Powell, who celebrated his 40^th birthday on November 23, was a trailblazer in an era that produced some of the fastest men in the history of track and field namely Usain Bolt, an eight-time Olympic gold medallist, Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake and Steve Mullings, among others.

Powell set 100m world records of 9.77 in Athens, Greece in 2005 and 9.74 in Rieti, Italy in 2007. His record was broken by Bolt in New York in 2008 when he ran 9.72 at the Adidas Grand Prix.  Powell lowered his personal best to 9.72 in September 2008, but by then Bolt had taken the record down to 9.69 at the Beijing Olympics.

After breaking 10 seconds for the first time in 2004, Powell went on to run under 10 seconds for the 100m, a record 97 times. It is an achievement that has earned him the moniker ‘Sub-10 King.”

However, despite his amazing talent, Powell never won individual global titles in the blue-riband event. Favoured to win the 100m at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Powell finished fifth. Four years later, he was fifth at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Powell won the Commonwealth Games 100m title in Australia in 2006 and was favoured to win the 100m at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan. However, the six-time Jamaican champion was third behind American Tyson Gay, the gold medallist and Bahamian Derrick Atkins, admitting afterwards that he ‘panicked’.

In 2009, Powell ran his best time in a global final – 9.84 at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany - good enough for bronze behind Usain Bolt, who lowered his own world record to 9.58 with Gay winning silver in a then American record of 9.71.

He was seventh in the 100m final at the London 2012 Games.

Powell won gold medals as a member of Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team at the 2016 Rio Olympics and at the World Championships in 2009 in Berlin and 2015 in Helsinki.

He last ran under 10 seconds in 2016 when he ran 9.92 in Hungary. Injury played a significant role in his inability to continue to break 10 seconds with his fastest time in the last six years being 10.02 in Leverkusen, Germany in 2019.

A favourite of female fans across the globe, Powell announced that his career had come to an end at a lavish birthday party late last week that was attended by several prominent figures from Corporate Jamaica, his shoe sponsor Puma as well as former teammates Bolt, Blake, Frater, Carter and Elaine Thompson-Herah.

His agent Paul Doyle, family, and his closest friends were also in attendance.

On Saturday, he shared the news on Instagram.

“18 years!!! Thanks to my sponsors and loyal fans who have supported me over the years. This sport has given me so many opportunities…but I started my track career in 2002 and have had many ups and downs but was never ungrateful for what I have accomplished,” he said.

“I am entering a new phase and a new chapter of my life and a lot more to come from me. I will continue to inspire the younger generation in every way possible.”

Powell married Canadian model Alyshia Miller in a lavish ceremony before family and friends in Montego Bay 2019 and together have two sons.

In a career spanning more than a decade during which she has five 100m world titles, two Olympic 100m titles, and is one of the fastest women to have ever lived, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is just now accepting that she is among the greatest, if not the greatest of all time.

Since she became the first Jamaican woman to win an Olympic 100m title when she crossed the line first at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Fraser-Pryce has established a number of firsts that have augmented her incredible legacy of dominance on women’s sprinting. She would eventually win back-to-back 100m gold medals and at the Tokyo Olympics became the first woman in history to win 100m medals in four consecutive Olympic Games when she finished second to compatriot Elaine Thompson-Herah.

She was also the first to simultaneously hold Olympic and World 100m titles; she has done it twice (2008/2009 and 2012/2013) and she also became the first female sprinter to win the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at a World Championships (Moscow 2013).

And this past summer, she became the first running athlete – male of female – to win five world titles in a single event, the oldest woman ever to win a world 100m title and capped it off running a record seven times below 10.7 in the 100m including the world-leading 10.62 in Monaco in August.

However, with all that under her belt she never believed herself to be in the conversation on who is Greatest of All Time.

“As an athlete, especially as a young athlete growing up I never had that belief in myself,” she said. “The mindset has been the greatest asset that I have had throughout my years and I always think I am very good at what I do because that is why I continue to show up knowing that I know that I can do it.”

However, her accomplishments during this past season has opened her up to the reality of the true strength of her legacy.

“To be able to accomplish the things that I did is only because of the grace of God because I have worked really, really hard and I think this time around I was more contented than ever knowing that I belong, having fun and a sense of being at peace and to be even considered one of the greatest is truly remarkable,” she said speaking to Sportsmax.TV at the conclusion of her Pocket Rocket Foundation’s ninth annual scholarship awards at the Jamaica Pegasus.

“So I am glad to even be able to me mentioned in the conversation. For me, I am just happy to be mentioned.”

Fraser-Pryce, who turns 36 in December will be going after a sixth World 100m title in Budapest in 2023 and what would be a record third Olympic 100m gold medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Five-time world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has revealed that having won a record five 100m world championship and two Olympic 100m gold medals, she is now focused on going as fast she can before she hangs up her spikes for good.

The 35-year-old Mommy Rocket made the revelation recently at the annual Pocket Rocket Scholarship Awards at the Jamaica Pegasus in Kingston where seven new awardees received bursaries and gifts valued at J$190,000, a significant increase over previous years since the foundation began awarding scholarships in 2013.

At the start of last season, after a 200m race at the National Stadium in Kingston, Fraser-Pryce announced that her goal for the season was to run as fast as 10.5 or 10.4s and, of course, win a record-extending fifth 100m title having previously won in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2019.

Speaking to Sportsmax.TV afterwards the awards ceremony, Fraser-Pryce, who ran a record seven-times under 10.70 seconds last season, more than any other woman has ever done, explained why she was not disappointed at not going faster than the world-leading 10.62 she ran in Monaco on August 10.

“Honestly, I am not disappointed because the conversation I had with my coach before was that to be able to run 10.5 or 10.6 you have to be able to run 10.6 consistently and I think I was able to do that,” said Fraser-Pryce.

“It was almost like second nature, automatic that I could switch on, so now that I have had that work done this season then it’s going back to the drawing board and cementing the things that I have learnt this (past) season and also getting better at some other things, hopefully I will be able to go below 10.6 soon.

“At this stage of my career that is what I am chasing, fast times that is what I am really chasing. I have accomplished a lot of things, I won my fifth world title…and I want to make sure that when I leave I (would have) given everything. That’s just the goal to make sure that the day I depart and I sit at home I would be contented that I gave everything that I could and I left no stones unturned.”

To do that, she said, there are certain things that she must improve for the coming season when she could be gunning for a sixth world 100m title in Budapest.

“Practicing relaxation has been the key and I need to be confident in my technique,” she said. “I need to have that confidence…I need to trust that technique and trust that it is not going to fail me; just making sure that I stay relaxed and execute the phases of the race the proper race all should go well.”

Barbadian Commonwealth Games 400m champion and World Championship bronze medallist Sada Williams gifted her medals from the 2022 season to the Barbados Olympic Association on Thursday.

“Today, I had the honor of gifting my medals to the Barbados Olympic Association where they can be showcased in their museum for any and everyone visiting to view them,” Williams said on her Instagram page on Thursday.

Williams enjoyed a career best 2022 season in the one lap event.

In July, she ran a personal best and national record 49.75 for bronze at the World Championships in Eugene. She followed that up in August by winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 49.90 and silver at the NACAC Championships in Freeport in 49.86.

In addition to those medals, Williams also enjoyed four top three finishes on the Diamond League circuit last season. She finished third in Monaco and second in Lausanne and Brussels before crossing the line third once again at the Diamond League final in Zurich.

“I thought it only fitting to share my achievements to the people of Barbados after all the overwhelming support from this past season. To all my fellow Bajan athletes, I hope you take this opportunity and remember that even though we’re from a little island, we can do big things."

Jamaican Olympian Simone Facey is now a certified coach of athletics.

Newly minted national record holder Britany Anderson won the silver medal in a fast 100m hurdles final on Sunday’s closing day of the 2022 World Championships of Athletics at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Aided by a wind of 2.5m/s, Anderson, in her first world championships final, ran a fast 12.23 to finish in second place behind Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, who clocked a ridiculously fast 12.06 to win the gold medal.

Amusan, who is coached by Jamaican Olympian Lacena Golding-Clarke, shattered the USA’s Kendra Harrison’s world record of 12.20 in the semi-final when she clocked a stunning 12.12s.

Harrison was second in the heat with a season-best 12.27 but the American was unable to handle the pace in the final and was subsequently disqualified after hitting a number of hurdles.

Anderson, meanwhile, broke Danielle Williams’ national record of 12.32 set in 2019, when she won her semi-final heat in 12.31 while holding off the Olympic champion, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who clocked 12.32.

Both women shared the time of 12.23 in the finals but Anderson was 0.005 seconds faster and hence awarded the runner-up spot.

Alia Armstrong of the USA was fourth in 12.38 while Cindy Sember who ran a new British record of 12.50 in the semis, clocked 12.41 for fifth.

Danielle Williams ran 12.44 for sixth with Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas running 12.53 for seventh.

Meanwhile, Jamaica’s men picked up their first medal of the championships when they finished second in the 4x400m relay. The USA won the gold medal in a world-leading 2:56.17 but the Jamaican quartet of Ackeem Bloomfield, Nathon Allen, Jevaughn Powell and Christopher Taylor – spared blushes for their male counterparts with a season-best 2:58.58.

Allen ran the fastest split on the second leg, 43.95 while Taylor completed the anchor leg in an impressive 43.98.

Belgium finished third in 2:58.72.

Jamaica’s women closed the championships with the third silver-medalist on the final day when they finished runner-up to gold medal favourites, the USA which ran a world-leading time of 3:17.79.

The Jamaican quartet of Candice McLeod, Janieve Russell, Stephenie-Ann McPherson and Charokee Young, clocked a season-best 3:20.74.

Great Britain was third in 3:22.64.

Jamaica won 10 medals at the championships - two gold, seven silver and a bronze medal.

Pre-race favourties Jamaica finished in second position behind the United States on the back of a few untidy baton exchanges in the Women’s 4x100m relays at the IAAF World Championships on Saturday.

The US quartet of Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner, Jenna Prandini, and Twanisha Terry blasted to the line in 41.14.  With Terry just managing to hold off rapidly closing 200m champion Shericka Jackson.

The Jamaicans had gotten off to a poor start with a botched exchange between first leg runner Kemba Nelson and second leg runner Elaine Thompson-Herah putting the team immediately on the back foot. 100 World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce reduced the deficit on the third leg but could not pull things back.  The team finished with a time of 41.18.

The German quartet of Tatjana Pinto, Alexandra Burghardt, Gina Lückenkemper, and Rebekka Haase claimed third place in a time of 42.03.

In the men’s equivalent, the Jamaicans finished just outside the medal places.  The top spot went to the Canadian team who upset pre-race favourites the United States.  Great Britain finished with the bronze medal.  The Jamaica team consisted of Ackeem Blake, Yohan Blake, Oblique Seville, and Jelani Walker.

Grenadian thrower Anderson Peters put together a series of sensational performances to dominate the Javelin Throw at the IAAF World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Saturday.

  Straight out the gates, the Caribbean athlete served notice of his intention to defend the crown he won in Doha, at the 2019 edition.  Peters went straight to the head of the pack with a massive throw of 90.21.  The athlete went on to register another three 90m throws, including his winning distance of 90.54 in the final round.

The Grenadian was the only athlete on the day attaining the 90m standard.  Second spot went to India’s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra who registered a mark of 88.13 in the fourth round.  The Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch claimed the bronze medal with his best of 88.09, which he achieved in the third round.

Peters heading into the event as the athlete in form, having registered a world-leading mark of 93.07 in Doha, Qatar in May.

Sydney McLaughlin broke her own world record by almost three-quarters of a second to win 400m hurdles gold at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon on Friday.

The American, who claimed double gold at Tokyo 2020 last year, including in this event, blew past her rivals to post a new world-best time of 50.68 seconds.

It marked a further reduction on the previous world record she set last month with a remarkable 51.41 seconds, and now means she possesses five of the six fastest times in the race's history.

The Netherlands' Femke Bol, who nabbed bronze last year in Japan, came home second for silver behind the 22-year-old, with 52.27, while United States team-mate Dalilah Muhammad.settled for bronze.

"The time is absolutely amazing and the sport is getting faster and faster," said McLaughlin. "I only get faster from here."

McLaughlin is now expected to consider a potential switch in her field, with a move to the 400m flat a likely option.

Shanieka Ricketts could not contain her joy when the reality set in that she was a World Championships triple jump silver medalist once again.

“I was overjoyed when I realized that I won the silver medal. It felt like redemption from missing the podium in Tokyo by a mere three centimetres,” she recalled while speaking with Sportsmax.TV earlier this week.

“When I remember the journey to the podium, the days that we could not train when the distances were not forthcoming, and all the times when we wondered if we would be ready, it really felt like a dream come true, and it would not be possible without the help of God, my coach Kerrylee Ricketts and my agent Norman Peart.”

After winning silver in Doha in 2019 behind the virtually invincible Venezuelan, Yulimar Rojas, Ricketts, as she pointed out, was unable to replicate the performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where her best effort of 14.84m was only good enough for fourth.

Fast forward to 2022 when armed with the lessons learnt from Tokyo, Ricketts encountered an unexpected new challenge early in the season.

“I started experiencing some tension in my knee in January. We had to take a break from doing technical sessions and it also restricted me from doing explosive lifts and sprints for some time,” she recounted.

Those early struggles manifested in the form of a few relatively off-colour performances -13.94m at the John Wolmer Speed Fest at the National Stadium in Kingston in March; 14.27m at the Velocity Fest 10 also in Kingston on April 2 and 14.15m seven days later at the USATF Bermuda Games.

She capped off the string of underwhelming performances with a 13.95m performance at Velocity Fest 11 at the National Stadium on April 23.

Notwithstanding, the underwhelming outings, Ricketts ended up a winner in each competition but she knew she had to be much better if she was to contend for a medal in Oregon.

In fact, she admits that her confidence began to wane as the marks were nowhere close to what she needed to be able to take on the world’s best come July.

“It did to some extent, especially when things were not going as planned,” she conceded, “but, I know that every season is different and sometimes challenges occur that you have to overcome in order to reach the goals that you have. So I did my best to focus on the things that I could control, trust my coach, trust the program and trust the process and hoped for the best.”

Sure enough, things began to change.

“Things began to improve in May and there were times when I wondered if I would be able to perform at my best at the world championships because I knew that in order to be on the podium I have to jump at least 14.70 and I have not seen that result all year,” she explained.

On May 13, she produced a season-best 14.82 for yet another victory in Doha and then reeled off marks of 14.35 and 14.52 before winning at Jamaica’s National Championships with a less than stellar 14.27m.

She isn’t clear on when things finally came together but what is certain is that they did and at just the right time.

“I know that a lot of persons were ahead of me on the performance list for this season, so I had to bring my ‘A’ game in order to medal,” said Ricketts who qualified for the finals in Oregon with 14.45m but with the intention of jumping much farther once the final began on Monday night.

“The goal for the final was to produce a big jump in the first round to take the pressure off me and put the pressure on the field. Then do my best to keep improving as the rounds progressed.”

She did exactly that. 14.89m on her first jump, a mark only surpassed by Rojas, who would subsequently win her third world title in as many championships.

For Ricketts, it all came down to what happened in Tokyo last year. That was where the rebound started and ended nicely for the four-time national champion.

“Not winning a medal in Tokyo really motivated me to work harder, and to never underestimate any of my opponents.  The experience also helped me become fearless because I know how to navigate both winning and losing,” she said.

“Winning feels much better and yields the best outcomes so I always strive to win but I am not afraid to lose.”

At the conclusion of the world championships, Ricketts returns home for a few days before flying off to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England where she hopes of a golden conclusion to a season that did not begin with much promise.

Tokyo Olympics 400m finalists Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Marileidy Paulino, Candice McLeod and Stephenie-Ann McPherson all advanced to Friday’s 400m finals at the conclusion of the semi-final round of competition at the 2022 World Championships of Athletics at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon on Wednesday night.

The St Lucia Athletics Association has moved to dispel the notion that they failed to supply 100m sprinter Julien Alfred with apparel for her campaign at the 2022 World Athletics Championship in Eugene, Oregon.

The 20-year-old Alfred, the 2022 NCAA 100m champion, wore a plain white singlet with a Nike logo and black tights while getting to the semi-finals on Sunday when she failed to advance to the final after being disqualified for a false start. Perhaps triggered by the disappointing end to her campaign, fans, primarily on social media, targeted the SLAA accusing it of not furnishing the athlete with the appropriate uniform for the championships.

In a statement released Monday, the association’s secretary Lisa Joseph sought to dispel any notion that that was the case, explaining that Alfred was provided with a national uniform for both the Caribbean Games and the World Championships.

“In the past few days, Julien’s accomplishments have been overshadowed by allegations that the association failed to supply her with competition apparel and that the president (Cornelius Breen) was conspicuously taciturn on the matter,” Joseph said in the statement.

“As it concerns Team St Lucia's competition uniforms, the St. Lucia Athletics Association never has and will never send any athlete to represent our beautiful island without bearing the colours of our national flag which we cherish so much.”

 According to Joseph, Alfred, whose time of 10.81, made her the fourth-fastest woman in the world this year, was provided with a competition kit from a local supplier ahead of the Caribbean Games in Guadeloupe two weeks prior to her competing in the World Championship in Eugene Oregon, which was amended to the comfort of the athlete.

 Following the Caribbean Games, another kit was procured for her, this time for the World Championship.

“When she was presented with the other kit, she intimated that she was not comfortable with it,” Joseph revealed.  “To solve this untimely situation, she was taken to a supplier where the St. Lucia Athletics Association was able to procure apparel which she said she was comfortable with.

“Moving forward, persons must not jump to hasty conclusions. Firstly, they should find out and clear the facts from the relevant governing body of the sport before posting or presenting news articles,” the SLAA secretary concluded.

Rana Reider, the head coach at Florida-based Tumbleweed training group, has been warned and ejected from the 2022 World Athletics Championships after gaining ‘unauthorized access’, according to media reports.