The fifth-fastest woman in the world this year in the 400m, Aliyah Abrams, will headline the acclaimed Aliann Pompey Invitational, set for June 24 at the National Track and Field Centre in Edinburg.
“It means a lot, and it’s important to me because I haven’t competed in Guyana in a few years, so I’m excited to be going back and competing in front of family and supporters,” Abrams said when asked about competing at home for the first time since the 2021 National Senior Championships.
“The API brings together elite athletes and performances while getting to showcase what Guyana has to offer. It also allows track and field fans in the country to witness the sport live and direct. It is important to show the world that we are capable of putting on a high-calibre meet that can attract world-class talent,” Abrams said.
Abrams is having a sensational season with the former University of South Carolina stand-out athlete resetting Guyana’s 400m record at the NACAC New Life Invitational in The Bahamas.
With a remarkable time of 50.20s, Abrams broke Pompey’s 14-year-old national record on her way to topping an extraordinary field that included Charokee Young, Roxana Gomez, Stacey-Ann Williams and Sada Williams, the 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist and World Championship Bronze Medallist.
Abrams said she had “a sense of fulfilment” when she crossed the line on May 13 to replace Aliann’s 2009 time of 50.71s, proclaiming “the record was a long-standing goal of mine and after years of seeming to get close but not quite there, I didn’t focus on the time I was just running to compete, so that being the result was impressive.”
Her time places her in the top five in the world this year, with only Britton Wilson (49.13s), Gabrielle Thomas (49.68s), Rhasidat Adeleke (49.90s) and Stacy-Ann Williams (50.12s) running faster than Abrams in the 400m.
Already qualifying for the World Athletics 2023 World Championships in Track and Field, Abrams said one of her goals this season is to be a finalist at the event set for August 19-27 in Budapest, Hungary, while also “dipping under 50s.”
Meanwhile, Pompey, highlighting her reason for choosing Abrams to join the likes of Kim Collins and Kirani James on the list of athletes to headline her much-celebrated meet, noted, “Aliyah is having a great year. She’s the 5th fastest woman in the world this year, our new 400m national record holder, all this with both World Championships and Olympics on the near horizon.”
According to Pompey, “One of the recurring themes of the competition this year is legacy. When the competition started, the goal was to bring the best of the world here to Guyana to compete against our best athletes. Aliyah has catapulted us, and Guyana’s best is also one of the world’s best.”
Pompey, Guyana’s Commonwealth Games 400m gold and silver medallist, saw her fifth edition of the AP Invitational, like most sports events in 2020, cancelled because of COVID-19.
The Olympian made several attempts to host the championships, but in 2022, she was curtailed by several challenges, including relaying of the track at the country’s lone synthetic facility.
In February 2020, the AP Invitational was announced by World Athletics as part of its structured World Athletics Continental Tour.
World Athletics had stated that the impetus for creating the Continental Tour was to provide more competition and earning opportunities for more athletes.
At the 2018 AP Invitational, Kirani James, the 2012 Olympic Champion and 2016 Olympic silver medallist, clocked 44.99 seconds to win the ‘AP’ Invitational 400m and set a new Track Record.
The AP Invitational, which ran off its inaugural event in 2016, saw 11 athletes, all from overseas, move on to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio.
