No replacement for Gauntlett
MONTEGO BAY, St James — The Jamaican delegation will be unable to replace 400m runner Akheem Gauntlett, who earlier this week withdrew from the Jamaican team to participate at the 14th IAAF World Championships set to begin next Saturday in Moscow, Russia.
Garth Gayle, general secretary of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that because entries closed on July 29 it would be impossible to replace the University of Arkansas runner who was named earlier this week in the 45-member team.
Gauntlett announced his withdrawal from the team via social media this week, citing “personal reasons”, but did not go into details.
He placed third in the 400m at the JAAA National Trials in June, in 45.48 seconds, behind new champion Javere Bell in 45.08 seconds, and Calabar schoolboy Javon Francis (45.24 seconds), both personal best times and inside the ‘A’ qualifying standard of 45.28 seconds.
Gauntlett, who has a personal best 45.13 seconds in the 400m set in 2012, and Omar McLeod, who was fourth at the Trials, were selected for the Central American and Caribbean Senior Championships in Mexico, but finished fifth in the 400m finals and did not run in the 4x400m team that placed fourth.
It is expected that Olympian Rushane McDonald, who ran 45.28 seconds at a meeting in Lignano, Italy on July 16, will join Bell and Francis as the three representatives in the men’s 400m at the World Championships.
McDonald, the former Garvey Maceo High student who turns 21 on August 17, competed in the Olympic Games last year but failed to get past the first round.