All eyes will be on rising star athlete, Emanuel Archibald, tomorrow as he once again looks to clinch an Olympic berth when the Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG) stages its second meet of the season at the National Track and Field Centre.
Archibald, 26, sits second on the world long jump season leaderboard.
The only man above him? South African, Cheswill Johnson who punched his ticket to the Olympic Games with a leap of 8.26m last month.
Archibald who jumped to 8.10m in his season debut on Valentine’s Day to highlight the first AAG event, will be looking to eclipse his personal best and national record of 8.12m
The native of the Mining Town, will be gunning to reach or surpass the entry standard of 8.22m to earn his spot to the prestigious Games before the qualifying window closes on June 21.
President of the AAG, Aubrey Hutson, is confident that Archibald will be a representative of the Golden Arrowhead in Tokyo, Japan. “While I agree it is still early in the season, I think Archibald’s chances of qualifying for the Olympics are very, very high.”
He added: “I feel very confident that he is going to make it and this weekend gives him an added opportunity since at the first meet he only had three jumps. This weekend he will have six. So we want to make sure if he qualifies early then he can tailor his programme to build back up to peak at the Olympics.”
Hutson underscored:“ I am very hopeful that Mr. Archibald can be a medalist at the Olympics this year, because he started off on a very high note and it is just for him to maintain that standard and improve on it as time goes by.”
Meanwhile, athletes are scheduled to get into the blocks from 09:00hrs at the meet which will cater heavily for CARIFTA and Olympic Games athletes.
Hutson said that he expects keen competition since tomorrow’s event is the last one prior to the National Senior Championships which is scheduled for April 17-18 at the same venue.
