KINGSTON, Jamaica — Kishane Thompson, as he did a year ago, shook up the National Stadium with a massive personal best 9.82 seconds (1.0m/s), the fastest in the first round of the men’s 100m at the National Championships, in his first race of the season.
A year ago, Thompson came almost ‘from nowhere’ to shock the fans with a 9.91 seconds run in the first round, but did not show up for the semi-finals and then lowered his then personal best to 10.85 seconds, later in the season.
On Thursday he confirmed whispers of “something big” coming as he equaled Oblique Seville’s personal best run at the Racers Grand Prix, joint second in the world behind Ferdinand Omanyala’s world lead 9.79 seconds.
Defending champion Seville was his usual smooth self as he clocked 9.98 seconds (0.4m/s), while Ackeem Blake was the other runner under 10.00 seconds with 9.95 seconds (1.0m/s).
Julian Forte was impressive with a season’s best 10.00 seconds, the same time ran by Sandrey Davison, Ryiem Forde clocked 10.02 seconds, while defending champion Rohan Watson ran 10.07 seconds.
Bryan Levell also ran 10.07 seconds, his personal best, while Sachin Dennis’ 10.04 seconds was his lifetime best.
— Paul A Reid