By Rawle Toney in Birmingham, England
WITH the hottest ticket at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Track and Field will begin today as some of the Commonwealth’s brightest stars are all ready to shine bright at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

Among them will be 10 athletes from Guyana, most of whom are making their debut at the games which started in 1930.

On the opening day of competition, Emanuel Archibald, along with Noelex Holder and Akeem Stewart, will line up in the Men’s 100 metres Heats, while Jasmine Abrams is down to compete in the women’s 100m.

Holder will run in Heat 5, alongside Ferdinand Omanyala, the Kenyan and African Champion. Omanyala also has the 9th-fastest time in the history of the 100m, when he posted 9.77s last year.

Stewart, with a personal best of 10.29s, will race in Heat 9; Archibald is in Heat 10. He will also take to the ‘pit’ tomorrow in the Men’s Long Jump.

Joanna Archer is set for the women’s 800m in Heat 2; same with Jamaica’s Natoya Goule who was a bronze medallist at the 2018 Games in Australia.

Coaches Julian Edmonds and Johnny Gravesande are tasked with overlooking the team.

According to Edmonds, the athletes, with the exception of the Abrams siblings, Jasmine and Aliyah, and Archibald, are not used to the bright lights at this level, but their performances this season brings hope.

The team, Edmonds said, is inexperienced at this level, adding “it’s important for us to keep them calm and let them focus on things they have control over.”

Archibald and the Abrams’ sisters, particularly Jasmine, are entering the games on the backdrop of running personal best in their events this year.

Archibald clocked 10.18 seconds, which made him the second-fastest Guyanese over the 100m distance, only behind Adam Harris (10.12s).

Jasmine, at the Trinidad and Tobago senior championships, ran 11.07s, which became Guyana’s National record in the women’s 100m, breaking Branessa Thompson’s 11.14 seconds.

The Abrams sisters and Archibald, over the last year, have represented Guyana at the Olympic Games, as well as both the World Indoor and Outdoor championships.

Apart from Aliyah Abrams, who had finished fifth in the Women’s 400m at the World Indoor Championships, none of the other aforementioned athletes have ever competed in a finals of a major event.

“Now, we’re winding down preparation, so it’s really doing the basic things right; take each race as it comes, do not overthink, and execute what you’ve been taught all-year round,” Edmonds said.

He added, “Jasmine has broken our national record, but she didn’t have a good (world) championship. But talking to her, at these games, she’s ready and raring to go.

Her main goal is sub-11, which 11.07s is not that far off. So once she puts that together, she’s going to go far. Myself and Coach Johnny, we’ve been talking to her about her race, especially in her first 30 metres.”

With an emphasis on being part of more relays, Holder, Stewart, and Archibald, will have 400m specialist Arinze Chance as their teammates for the 4X100m relay; something Edmonds said should be constant for Guyana at major games, taking into consideration that the country won bronze at the Senior South American championships in Ecuador, in June.

Guyana’s last three medals at the Commonwealth Games came from Track and Field.

Aliann Pompey won gold for Guyana at the 2002 games in Manchester, and then returned to grab Silver in 2010 in Delhi.

In 2018, at the Gold Coast Games, Troy Doris won Guyana’s fourth gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, when he took the Men’s triple-jump title.