Despite the obstacles posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaica’s track and field athletes made the nation proud in 2021. At the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Jamaica won 9 medals, 4 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze. Weeks later, our team to the World Under 20 Championships in Nairobi collected 3 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze medals. These results continued a long-standing tradition of excellence.

Jamaica finished 5th on the medal table last year at both the Olympics and the World Under 20 Championships, led by individual gold medallists Hansle Parchment and Elaine Thompson-Herah in Tokyo and Tina Clayton (100m) and Ackera Nugent (100mH) in Nairobi.

Now 2022 is here. Opportunity beckons from Eugene, Oregon, the self-styled ‘Track Town USA‘ which will host the World Championships in July with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Tajay Gayle arriving as defending champions in the 100 metres and the long jump respectively.

Other opportunities will arise in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, host of the World Indoor Championship, in Birmingham, England at the Commonwealth Games, and in Cali, Columbia, for the World Under 20 Championships.

It’s fair to expect Jamaica to contend for gold in 2022. Olympic 110m hurdles bronze medallist Ronald Levy, Fedrick Dacres (Discus), Janieve Russell (400mH), Aisha Praught-Leer (3000m steeplechase), Kimberly Williams (Triple Jump) and Danniel Thomas-Dodd (Shot Put) will go to Birmingham as defending Commonwealth champions and Clayton is young enough to return to the World Under 20 meet to defend her 100-metre title.

Big 1-2-3 finishes by Thompson-Herah, Fraser Pryce and Shericka Jackson in the Olympic 100m and the 110m hurdles 1-3 by Parchment and Levy promise good things for Eugene as well. The picture brightens with the prospect of a return to full fitness for Gayle and Dacres, and a return to the fast lane for 2016 Olympic and 2017 World 110m hurdles champion Omar McLeod and Thomas-Dodd, the 2019 shot put silver medallist.

Jamaica’s traditional strength in baton events is on the rise again. In Tokyo and Nairobi, Jamaica was in every relay final, with gold medals secured in the 4×100 for women on both occasions. That time-honoured prowess will first be on display in Poland at the World Athletics Relays, early in May.

The Jamaican armada to Eugene could also include Tokyo 100 metre hurdles third-place finisher Megan Tapper and Olympic finalists Britney Anderson, Rasheed Dwyer, Natoya Goule, Shadae Lawrence, Candice McLeod, Stephennie McPherson, 2019 World triple jump runner-up Shanieika Ricketts, Russell, Chris Taylor, Williams and Chad Wright.

To sweeten the deal, look for the black-green-and-gold to fly high in the men’s 400 and 4×400 as 2019 World Championships finalists Demish Gaye and Akeem Bloomfield are fit again and are raring to go.

To top everything off, the Carifta Games are set to return to Jamaica for the first time since 2011.

It’s enough to make you tingle with anticipation. All in all, it could be a very good year for Jamaican athletics.