Emmanuel Archibald got his season off to sublime start, leaping to a world leading (unofficial) 8.10m when the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG) staged its first track and field meet for the year on Sunday at the National Track and Field Centre.
A look at the leaderboard on worldathletics.com shows that the 26-year-old National record holder (8.12m), eclipsed Australia’s Darcy Roper who currently stands atop the table with a leap of 7.96m recorded on January, 26 in Australia.
Archibald, who has a goal of qualifying for this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, will be encouraged by his early season exploits.
The native of the Mining Town, will be gunning to reach or surpass the entry standard of 8.22m to punch his ticket to the prestigious Games before the qualifying window closes on June 21.
Archibald will have another crack at qualifying for the Summer Games as soon as March 7 when the AAG stages its next meet at the same venue.
Another standout on Sunday was Guyana’s javelin record holder and 2018 South American Games silver medalist, Leslain Baird.
Baird who also a hopeful for Tokyo, threw 77.23m, sniffing his national record of 78.65m which was recorded in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
The Senior Petty Officer who turns 34 in three months, will have the Olympic Qualifying entry standard of 85.00m on his radar.
In the blue riband 100m events, Archibald showed his sprinting prowess as did Briana Charles. The pair was the first to cross the tape in their respective events. Archibald clocked 10.21s leading Akeem Stewart (10.51s) and Nolex Holder (10.69s) onto the podium.
Charles was timed at 11.91 ahead of Tonya Rawlins (12.15s) and the evergreen Alisha Fortune (12.50s).
The meet which was spectator free, was held under strict COVID-19 measures.
