Michelle-Lee Ahye and Tyra Gittens-Spotsville will represent T&T at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Nanjing, China from March 21-23.
Ahye will represent T&T in the women's 60 metres dash while Gittens-Spotsville in the women's long jump event.
Both earned their places based on the World Indoor Rankings. Ahye is at 14th on the women's 60m standings, safely among the top 56 athletes eligible to compete while Gittens-Spotsville is also at 14th in her event, the women's long jump. The top 16 have qualified for Nanjing.
Ahye is heading to her sixth World Indoor while Gittens-Spotsville is making her debut.
Their selection was announced by the National Association of Athletic Administration of T&T (NAAATT) via a press release yesterday.
Ahye, the national record holder (7.09 seconds), reached the finals in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2022 World Indoor Championships. At the 2024 edition in Glasgow, Scotland, the Carenage sprinter was 26th overall in the preliminary round after finishing fifth in heat four. The Tranquility Secondary School past student missed out on a medal at the 2016 World Indoors in Portland, Oregon, USA when she was fourth in the final in 7.11 seconds.
The 2015 World Outdoor Championships 4x100m bronze-medallist relied on the World Rankings route to qualify for Nanjing as her best time for this year, 7.24 set in finishing second in Fayetteville, Arkansas on February 21, was short of the World Indoor standard (7.15). The 2018 Commonwealth Games women's 100m champion also clocked 7.37 in Texas on January 31.
Seventeen-year-old Lisa Raye has sped under the standard are she zoomed to 7.13 in New York in February.
Gittens-Spotsville, also depended on the World Listing to book her spot. Her best jump for the year, 6.57m, was off the 6.90m-standard. The multiple national record-holder (long jump, high jump, pentathlon, hepathlon) achieved her 6.57m mark in Texas on January 17. She also recorded 6.45m in New York on January 25.
Ahye's fourth-place finish in 2016 is the top local T&T position by a woman at the World Indoor Championships to date along with Cleopatra Borel, who was also fourth in the women's shot put in 2016.
Jereem Richards won the 2022 World Indoor's 400m title. The late Deon Lendore has won the most medals, three bronzes–400m (2016 & 2018) and 4x400m (2018). T&T also won bronze in the men's 4x400m in 2012.
Long distance coach and former marathon runner Paul Voisin, first vice-president of the NAAATT will accompany the athletes as manager/coach with Nicole Fuentes Charles as the team medical official.
