By Neto Baptiste
It was an early exit for Antigua and Barbuda at the World Athletics Championships being held in Budapest, Hungary after the country’s lone athlete at the games sprinter Cejhae Greene, bowed out of the competition after just one round.
The US-based athlete clocked 10.23 seconds to finish sixth in Heat 4 of the Men’s 100 meters on Saturday, a time that did not get him into the second round of the event. the race was captured by Letsile Tebogo of Botswana in a time of 10.11 seconds with Australia’s Rohan Browning (10.11 seconds) and Great Britain’s Reece Prescod (10.14 seconds) finishing third.
Greene, although missing the qualifying mark of 10.00 seconds ahead of the ongoing World Athletics Championships, made the cut as one of the top 56 ranked contenders at the July 31 cut-off date. The 27-year-old is currently ranked 52 in the men’s 100 meters with a score of 1,219 points.
Greene clocked a wind assisted 10.09 seconds at the Miramar Invitational held in Florida in April after which he registered a time of 10.11 seconds in Nashville, Tennessee in June 2023.
Under the new World Athletics rules, a country is not eligible for a solidarity (wild card) position if they produce an outright qualifier for the games in question. A solidarity spot would allow a country to field one athlete who would not have previously qualified for the games.
