Jamaica names squad of 56 for London World Championships

The legend Usain Bolt, Rio Olympic gold medallists, Elaine Thompson and Omar McLeod along with defending 100m hurdles world champion Danielle Williams, have been named among a list of 56 athletes consisting of 27 males and 29 females selected for the London World Championships set for August 4-13.

With Jamaica sending a larger team than the 2015 world championships, it is expected that the team can surpass the 12 medals earned at the 2015 Beijing World Championships.

Bolt, who will be retiring at the end of the championships, will be defending the 100m title he won in 2009, 2013 and 2015. Yohan Blake, who won the 100m title in 2011, will also compete in the men’s 100m as Jamaica seeks to continue its domination of the sprints.

Bolt will only be competing in the 100m and a weakened 4x100m relay team that will be without the ‘Sub-10 king’, Asafa Powell, who has not recovered in time to prove his fitness after withdrawing from the Senior Championships.

Olympic 110m hurdles champion Omar McLeod will be among a powerful sprint hurdles trio of Hansle Parchment and Ronald Levy. Calabar High schoolboy and World Junior champion Dejour Russell also makes the trip as standby.

Sprint Queen Elaine Thompson will lead 28 other females into action in what is really a team in transition without the likes of Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Sherone Simpson or Kerron Stewart.

Thompson, the Rio Olympic 100m and 200m champion, will be competing only in the 100m and is a big favourite to defend the title won by Fraser-Pryce in 2013 and 2015.

Jamaica will be well represented in the field events with Fedrick Dacres highly touted for a medal in the discus and O’Dayne Richards in the shot put.

Jamaican team named for London World Championships