Another ticket booked

WORLD CHAMPION Shericka Jackson will have company in the 200 metres in Tokyo after National Champion Ashanti Moore eclipsed the personal best she set at the National Junior and Senior Championships last month to earn automatic qualification to the big show at the Raiffeisen Austrian Open yesterday.

Moore clocked 22.40 seconds, bettering the qualification mark of 22.57 for the World Championships this September.

It was also a big day in Austria for national 200-metre champion Bryan Levell, who ran away from a field where he was the only man below 10 seconds, clocking 9.82 to get the better of South Africa’s Abduraqhman Karriem (10.07) and Japan’s Yoshihide Kiryu (10.08).

The 200m champion’s personal best confirms he is ready to run fast after showing signs in the half-lap event.

In June at the Racers Grand Prix, he sped to 19.75, only to see an illegal wind reading. However, the ease with which he ran 20.10 to be crowned national champion later that month is telling a story.

While he hasn’t legally dipped below 20 seconds this season, those kinds of times seem to be in the tank.

The result also means Jamaica has three of the fastest men in the world over 100 metres this season, with Kishane Thompson at the top of the pops with 9.75, Levell second, and Oblique Seville just behind with 9.83.

Moore, who had run 22.66 seconds to win at the National Championships, credited God for her victory in an Instagram story. Posing with her race bib and a crown she got for her victory and breaking the meet record, Moore quoted Psalm 86, verse one.

“Bend down, O LORD, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help.”

The result also puts her 23rd on the 2025 World Athletics Women’s 200m top list.

The Jamaican champion finished well ahead of compatriot Candice McLeod, who was second in 23.73, and Italy’s Valentina Cavalleri, who clocked the same time for third.