MCFARLANE

NEW YORK CITY, New York (CMC)

Olympic 400-metre hurdles silver medallist Danny McFarlane will be among the Jamaicans appearing at the 101st Millrose Games on Friday night.

In the absence of Olympic and World Championship gold medalist Veronica Campbell and 100-metre world record holder Asafa Powell, the Jamaican charge at the indoor meet will be led by McFarlane and ex-Commonwealth Games 400-metre champion Michael Blackwood.

Others include Dorian Scott, a Commonwealth Games and Pan-Am Games silver medallist in the shot put, sprinter Clement Campbell, a World Championship 100-metre semi-finalist, and the lone female, Aleen Bailey, Olympic sprint relay gold medallist in Athens.

Blake, Ashmeade lead field

"Jamaica's contingent of seven - five veterans and two rising stars - will match spikes and strides with some of the best athletes from around the world," the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) said in a statement issued here in New York about the Games.

Two of Jamaica's rising sprint stars, CARIFTA champion Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade, lead the field for the Under-23, 60 metres, a new event at the Games.

Blake, 18, is the National High School champion at 100 metres, 200 metres and both the 4x100 and 4x400-metre relays for St. Jago High School. His personal best time of 10.11 seconds for 100 metres is the national junior record and last year he was named Outstanding Athlete for Relay Events at the Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Millrose Games, slated for the famous Madison Square Garden, is the third stop in the U.S.A. Track & Field's Visa Championship Series indoors.