Jamaicans continue to do well in international sprinting leading up to the Olympics in Beijing when Melanie Walker posted a world-leading and personal best time of 53.48 seconds at the Herculis Grand Prix in Monaco on Tuesday, making her the favorite for the event at the Olympics.

Her closest rivals are Americans Tiffany Williams (53.54) and Sheena Tosta (53.58), and the field is wide open as several ‘big-guns’ in the event will not compete. these include two of the 3 medalists from last year’s World Championships (Australia’s Jana Rawlinson and Russia’s Yulia Petchenkina), along with China’s Huang Xiaoxia and American Lashanda Demus (who was the world leader until Melanie’s performance on Tuesday).

Walker has silver and bronze at the World Junior level in this event but failed to advance to the final of the event at last year’s World Championship. She has been steadily improving ever since and seems to be peaking at the right time.

Jamaicans are optimistic that this Olympics will be their best with our best chances expected to be in the 100m men (Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell) , Men’s 200m (Usain Bolt), Womens 100m (Kerion Stewart, Sherone Simpson, Shelly Ann Fraser, Womens 200m (Veronica Campbell), Melanie in the 400m Hurdles. They are also expected to do well in the relays, especially the 4×100m for both men and women.

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