Jamaica’s reigning World Athletics Under-20 women’s 100m champion Tina Clayton is among 16 individual champions from last year’s World Under-20 Championships held in Nairobi, Kenya, who are eligible to defend their titles at this year’s renewal set for Cali, Colombia, between August 1-6.

Of the 40 individual champions who were crowned in 2021, World Athletics highlighted the talented teenagers who were winners and who will be eligible to defend their titles the first time the global championships will be held in back-to-back years since it was first held in Athens, Greece, in 1986.

In addition to Clayton, 17 of the 41 athletes who were named to the team that competed in Kenya last year are also eligible for the championships this year, including men’s triple jump silver medallist Jaydon Hibbert and the entire women’s 4x100m relay team that won the gold medal.

“One silver lining of the postponed World U-20 Championships in Nairobi last year is that there is just a one-year wait between that edition and the next one,” World Athletics said in an article published on Saturday.

Clayton, who succeeded Briana Williams who won the event in Finland in 2018 as the World Under-20 100m champion, would be seeking to join Dexter Lee as the only Jamaicans to retain a World Under-20 100m title.

Lee became the first man to win back-to-back 100m titles when he won in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 2008 and again in Moncton, Canada, in 2010.

Hibbert, who was 16 years old at last year’s championships, won silver in the triple jump, while the women’s 4x100m relay team of Tina, her twin sister Tia, Serena Cole and 100m finalist Kerrica Hill are all inside the Under-19 age group.

Bryan Levell, who ran both the 100m and 200m in Nairobi; Brianna Lyston, who ran the 200m; and quarter-miler Tahj Hamm are also eligible, as well as intermediate hurdler Roshawn Clarke and Kobe Lawrence, who was a finalist in the men’s shot put; and Cedricka Williams, who was a finalist in the women’s discus throw.

Oneika McAnuff, who made the women’s 400m final and Oneka Wilson, who qualified for the 100m hurdles final — though both failed to show up because of illness — are also still eligible as well as relay members Sandrey Davison, Malachi Johnson, Alliah Baker, Daena Dyer, and Shaemar Uter.

Sixteen-year-old Oneika Brissett was named in the team but did not travel to Nairobi, also because of illness but will still be eligible for the team.

The Jamaican team won 11 medals at the championships — three gold, six silver, and two bronze.