Emanuel Archibald crouched in the starting blocks last night with Akeem Stewart two lanes to his right and knew he would need a special performance to beat his sprint rival.
The 24 year-old ran a personal best en route to winning the blue-riband 100 metres at the National Senior Championships staged at the Track and Field Centre at Leonora.
Archibald, a blur in his black Adidas singlet, pulled away from Stewart over his first blistering few strides, then crossed in 10.18s.
The native of Linden was pleased with his timing despite missing out on clinching an Olympic berth which has a qualifying standard of 10.05s.
“I knew I would have ran it” said the muscular sprinter. “Getting a chance to go to the Olympics would be special but achieving a personal best is great also.
Archibald, the national long jump record holder will have another crack at clinching an Olympic berth in the pit tomorrow. The qualifying mark he will be aiming for is 8.22m.
Stewart crossed in 10.46, while Nolex Holder was third in 10.47s.
The men’s 100m was the highlight of an action-packed Day One of the Three-Day annual championships which saw Jasmine Abrams (11.37s) winning the female version of the 100m final and Suriname’s Miguel Van Assen (16.53m) winning the men’s triple jump.
Jemiecia Scott ( 33.15m) taking gold in the women’s discus, Chantoba Bright disturbing the sand in 13.53m to earn the women’s triple jump title and Sir Kennard Hartog (34.41.89) triumphing in a fierce duel in men’s 10,000 final with Cleveland Thomas (34.46.36).
Earlier in the night, Sheama Tyrell (19.49.03) won the women’s 5000 in wire-to-wire fashion, lapping all other starters in the event.
Today will be highlighted by the 400-metre finals, high jumps, the javelin and 1500m events along with the 4x100m relays.
The athletes are scheduled to get in the blocks from 10:00hrs.