#NationalTrials: McPherson, Cox lead men’s 400m qualifiers to semis
KINGSTON, Jamaica— Former Pan-American Junior relay teammates Bovel McPherson and Anthony Cox led the qualifiers into the semis-finals of the restructured men’s 400m set to be held on Thursday evening on the first day of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) National Trials at the National Stadium.
Both men, who were part of the men’s 4x400m relay at the 2019 Pan American Juniors in Costa Rica in 2019, ran identical times of 47.04 seconds to win their respective heats.
The top eight on times from Thursday morning’s qualifying round advanced to the semi-finals set to start at 6:50pm.
In order to run a men’s 4x400m relay on Sunday’s final day in an attempt to qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris, the organisers of the championships restructured the men’s 400m which sees the first two rounds being run on the first day and the finals set for Friday.
The athletes will get to rest Saturday with maybe the eight finalists forming two teams to run on Sunday.
The top 16 runners on times this year were given byes to the semis on Thursday.
In rainy conditions on Thursday morning, McPherson, the Pan-American Juniors bronze medallist in 2019, won the second heat while Cox won the third heat.
Paul Henry of New Era TC ran 47.33 seconds, Roy Miller ran 47.51 seconds, Nicardo Blake of Central Park TC ran 47.88 seconds, Terry Thomas of Titans Track Club ran 48.15 seconds, Emil Gordon of UTech ran 48.28 seconds and Lavar Berrick of Excelsior High ran 48.71 seconds.
-Paul A Reid