Champs under way - Jamaicans begin golden hunt in Russia

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

MOSCOW, Russia:The last time a Jamaican team competed at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, they left with two medals from the 1980 Olympic Games.

Thirty-three years later, double world record holder and Olympic champion, Usain Bolt, will lead Jamaica's 44-member-strong team at the iconic Russian edifice as they launch their latest medal campaign in the Russian capital at the 14th staging of the IAAF World Championships.

The media rage around Jamaica's team here by members of the international press sometimes resembles an obituary, spelling doom and gloom for a team embroiled in the latest doping discussion and missing several of its biggest names with Veronica Campbell-Brown, Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson, and Yohan Blake all missing.

However, despite the less-than-positive outlook, Jamaica's transitioning team, which features 16 senior inter-national rookies, could spring a surprise or two and is well positioned to at least equal the medal count of nine from the last instalment of the World Championships, held two years ago in Daegu, South Korea.

Bolt and Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are expected to deliver multiple individual medals with the likes of Warren Weir and Nickel Ashmeade (200m), Nesta Carter (100m), with Hansle Parchment (110m hurdles) also tipped to chip in as well. Medals are also expected from all four relay teams, a scenario which, though optimistic, would see the Jamaicans challenge their best-ever World Championships medal tally of 13, which was achieved at the 2009 Berlin championships.

Jamaica has mined 89 medals since the first staging of the World Championships, 32 in the last three championships alone, and if the eagerness displayed in training and the confidence of the coaching staff are anything to go by, then that bounty will increase significantly by the time the curtains come down on Moscow 2013.

"We are ready and looking forward to the championships," declared head coach Michael Clarke.

Eight Jamaicans will be in action on today's opening day of competition, with long jumper Francine Simpson looking to become the first to book a spot in a final when

she lines up in the qualifiers at 10:20 a.m. (Jamaica time).

Novelene Williams-Mills, Stephenie McPherson, and Patricia Hall will compete in the women's 400m heats, which start at 9:05 a.m., with all three expected to progress to the next round.

All eyes will, however, be on track and field's poster boy, Bolt, who has, of course, commanded the headlines here, declaring that he intends to challenge his own world records here.

He, along with Jamaica's other entrants in the men's 100m - Kemar Bailey-Cole, Nesta Carter, and Nickel Ashmeade - will be looking to excite in the heats, which start at 11:15 a.m.

Jamaicans have won the last two 100m finals at the IAAF World Championships, and despite the absence of defending champion Blake, Bolt and his compatriots should have their way in this event, which could act as the stimuli needed to send the Jamaicans' medal chase in the right direction.

Jamaican medal tallies

Helsinki 1983 - 1 (gold); 1 (silver); 1 (bronze) - 3 (medals)

Rome 1987 - 0 (gold); 1 silver; 3 bronze = 4 medals

Tokyo 1991 - 1 gold; 1 silver; 3 bronze = 5 medals

Stuttgart 1993 - 1 gold; 1 silver; 3 bronze = 5 medals

Gothenburg 1995 - 1 gold; 4 silver; 2 bronze = 7 medals

Athens 1997 - 0 gold; 4 silver; 3 bronze = 7 medals

Seville 1999 - 0 gold; 2 silver; 4 bronze = 6 medals

Edmonton 2001 - 1 gold; 3 silver; 2 bronze = 6 medals

Paris 2003 - 0 gold; 4 silver; 2 bronze = 6 medals

Helsinki 2005 - 1 gold; 5 silver; 2 bronze = 8 medals

Osaka 2007 - 1 gold; 6 silver; 3 bronze = 10 medals

Berlin 2009 - 7 gold; 4 silver; 2 bronze = 13 medals

Daegu 2011 - 4 gold; 4 silver; 1 bronze = 9 medals