2011 World Champion Yohan Blake, Olympic Bronze medallist Shericka Jackson and World Under 20 Champion Tina Clayton turned on the speed to bring day 2 of the National Championships to a crescendo. With sprint hungry patrons on their feet inside the National Stadium, Blake, Jackson and Clayton scored memorable victories to pave their way to big championships later in the summer.

Blake and his young Titans International Track Club namesake Ackeem, ran side by side in their semi-final, 9.99 and 9.98 with Olympic semi-finalist Oblique Seville winning the other semi in 9.92 seconds. When they all met in the final, Yohan rode a perfect start to a mid-race lead and held off Seville to win in 9.85 seconds, his fastest time since his return to the sport in 2015 after a chronic hamstring injury.

He stands as the joint number 3 on the World Athletics 2022 performance table.

Seville, 9.88, the younger Blake, with a personal best of 9.93, and tall Jelani Walker, 10.00, completed the top four. With the World Championships three weeks away in Eugene, Oregon, Jamaican prospects are looking good in the 100 and the 4×100 metre relay.

After an extensive delay, Shericka Jackson outran a fine women’s 100m field in 10.77 seconds. That’s just a smidge off her lifetime best of 10.76. University of Oregon senior Kemba Nelson flew home from the outside lane to edge double-double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, 10.88 to 10.89. That is the best 100m time of Nelson’s life.

Olympic relay gold medallist Briana Williams started brilliantly and held on to revise her personal best to 10.94 in fourth.

The fast sequence of 100m races began with a sensational start by Tina Clayton. She held the early margin all the way in the Under 20 final and shaved Briana Williams’s national junior record from 10.97 to 10.96 seconds, with Edwin Allen teammate Serena Cole second in 11.13 seconds.

The under 20 boys 100m title was retained by 2021 winner Sandrey Davison in a season-leading Jamaican junior time of 10.20 seconds. He got up just in time to edge fast-starting Bouwahjgie Nkrumie by 0.02.

The under 20 400m hurdle title went to Roshawn Clarke with a personal best of 49.39 seconds and to Oneika McAnuff in 58.16, with two-time Olympic finalist Janieve Russell winning a dramatic senior final in her 2002 best, 53.63 seconds and Jaheel Hyde outlasting 2017 World finalist Kemar Mowatt in a thriller, 48.51 to 48.53 seconds.

Highlights on Saturday (Day 3) seem likely to come in the men’s discus with season leader Traves Smikle on top of the Jamaica performance list at 66.60 metres, the women’s triple jump which includes 2019 World silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts, the 400m semis and the first rounds of the sprint hurdles and the 200 metres.

So, Let’s wait and see.