Record entries for World Indoor Champs

Thursday Dec. 15th, 2011

Jamaica will be among what is expected to be a record number of countries taking part in the IAAF World Indoor Championships to be held in Istanbul, Turkey between March 9-11. A release from the IAAF yesterday said up to Monday's deadline for the Preliminary Entry Lists, "no fewer than 160 of the IAAF's Member Federations have confirmed their intention of sending a team to Istanbul".

The record number of teams to take part in the event was 147 that took part at the 2008 staging in Valencia, Spain, with the 142 that took part in the most recent, Doha 2010, the next best.

An official at the Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association (JAAA) confirmed that Jamaica had sent in a list of 15 to the IAAF. The official explained that the Preliminary Entry Lists did not require names of athletes, but rather, just a number of athletes expected to take part. World championships relay gold medalist Asafa Powell had indicated that he was hoping to take part in the World Indoors for the first time. The deadline for the Final Entry Lists is February 27, 2012 (midnight Monaco time).

Additionally, with the increased number of teams taking part, the organizers are also expecting a record number of athletes as indications are for no fewer than 847 athletes — 450 men and 397 women that have been entered — according to the IAAF release. The World Indoors were first contested in Paris in 1985 when 69 countries took part. Jamaica won two medals in Doha when Veronica Campbell Brown won the gold in the women's 60 meters ahead of Sheri-Ann Brooks, who captured the bronze. Jamaica had won a third medal, a bronze in the women's 4x400m relays, but Bobbi-Gaye Wilkins, who was also a semi-finalist in the 400m, was later disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance, andarine.