Two-time Olympic medallist T&T’s Keshorn Walcott threw a season’s best 82.75 metres to place third against a tough field in the men’s javelin event at the 60th Ostrava Golden Spike meet in the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

It was the first international meet for the 2012 Olympic champion and despite upstaging credible throwers, the mark was 2.25 metres shy of the qualifying standard of 85.00m for the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Germany’s Johannes Vetter unleashed a world-leading 94.20m in the first round to win the event ahead of second-place finisher Grenadian Anderson Peters of Grenada with 83.39 and Walcott, who saw an improvement on his 81.87-throw to open his season at the National Association of Athletics Administrations of T&T (NAAATT) Track & Field Series at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet Tobago on April 11.

The remaining four places were filled respectively Êby Czech Republic athletes including two-time Olympian Jakub Vadlejch (82.31), Vitezslav Vesely (78.52), Martin Florian (73.21) and Petr Frydrych (71.14)

Vadlejch won silver at the 2017 Wold Championships and Vesely won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics behind Walcott, who was also the bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Games.

On Tuesday, hurdler Ruebin Walters was among four local track athletes vying for Olympic qualification at the USA Track and Field (USATF) Open in Fort Worth, Texas. The others were fellow hurdler Sparkle McKnight, quarter-miler Asa Guevara and sprinter Taejha Badal

Walter had the most success in placing second in the men’s 110m hurdles event with a timeÊof 13.73 seconds. This after advancing with the fourth-fastest time of 13.90 in the preliminary heats. He was among the top three automatic qualifiers, placing second in heat two.

Winning the event was American Aaron Mallett with 13.64 and in third place was Wellington Zaza of Liberia with 13.77.

McKnight placed fifth with 57.73 in the second of two heats in the women’s 400m hurdles, to finish sixth overall. Her clocking did not go under theÊOlympic qualifying standard of 55.40. Panama’s Gianna Woodruff topped the second heat in 55.37 to nab gold.

Guevara placed tenth overall in the men’s 400m timed finals, crossing third in heat two in 44.37 (44.90-standard). Micheal Cherry of the USA won heat three, was first overall with 44.37.

Badal of the University of Colorado raced in two events but did not have success in either. In the women’s 100m timed finals, she finished sixth in heat one in 12.05 (11.15) to place 19th and last.

She did better in the 200m timed finals, placing eighth overall after going over the line in 24.21 (22.80) to take the second spot in the first of two heats.

National star sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye bid to qualify for the Tokyo Games continued on the weekend with her racing at three meets in California, Los Angeles, USA.

Ahye, who on April 18, completed a two-year suspension for “whereabouts failures”, narrowly missed out on meeting the Olympic standard in the women’s 100m (11.15) at the Azusa Pacific University (APU) Last Chance Twilight meet. She won the dash in a time of 11.23.

That day, Ahye also competed at a meet in Irvine, placing fifth with 11.36 in the 100m. This followed her performance at the Moorpark Open on Friday, where the reigning Commonwealth Games champion won the 200m with a season’s best 23.44.

McKnight also competed at Saturday’s meet in Irvine and her 56.54-clocking bagged a bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles.