Oakley to challenge Pryce dominance at Trials

WITH JUST over a week to go before the National Senior Championships at the National Stadium — which will be used to select athletes for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo this September — the name Dejanea Oakley is sparking some interest in the women’s 400 metres.

Defending national champion Nickisha Pryce will be aiming for a hat-trick of wins following her successes in 2023 and 2024. A year ago, she came into the Trials in red-hot form after an exceptional collegiate season for the University of Arkansas, where she became the first Jamaican to go under 49 seconds. She posted a national record of 48.89 seconds to erase Lorraine Graham’s previous record of 49.20 in winning the title at the NCAA Division 1 Championships.

Pryce went on to win her second national title in a row after getting the better of Stacy-Ann Williams and looked odds on to do so a third time up to a few weeks ago.

Though Pryce doesn’t look to be in the same form she had last season, her 50.04 at the Grand Slam Track Meet in Philadelphia last month made her the fastest Jamaican in the one-lap event.

However, things changed significantly over the past few days as former Clarendon College quarter-miler Dejanea Oakley — the 2022 World Under-20 finalist —put her hat in the ring with an impressive showing at the recent NCAA Division 1 Championships for the University of Georgia.

After clocking a personal best of 50.18 seconds in the semi-finals, she surprised many in the final two days later by blazing to a new lifetime best of 49.62. The effort left her runner up and just as importantly, marked her as the fastest Jamaican in the event. The time also left her ranked seventh in the world.

Oakley also ran a superb opening leg on her team’s winning 4x400m relay in a collegiate-leading time, and she will be full of confidence coming into the National Championships next week.

With a season’s best of 50.37, Williams is also in the mix but will need to do something extra special to get the better of the other two.

Former national champion Candice McLeod, who won the title in 2022 and was third the following year, has shown glimpses of good form recently but will need major improvement if she hopes to earn an individual ticket. Meanwhile, Shaquena Foote — another collegiate standout who was eighth last year and has a season’s best of 50.95 — along with Leah Anderson, who, despite only having a best of 51.15, also want to make their mark.