Sprinter Leah Bertrand will be first up for T&T at the virus-delayed World Under-20 Championships at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya, on Wednesday.

She leads off a three-athlete national team which also include fellow sprinter Shakeem McKay and hurdler Dillon Leacock. The rest of the contingent are coach Antonia Burton and manager Bevon Lord, who will also serve as the COVID-19 liaison officer.

Bertrand, who enters with a personal and season’s best time of 11.52, will line up in the fifth and final heat in the women’s 100 metres, running out of lane eight from 2.35 am (T&T time).

She will race against Nemata Nikiema of Burkina Faso, Poland’s Magdalena Niemczyk, Antonella Todisco (Italy), Ivana Ilic (Serbia), Lucie Micunkova (Czech Republuc) and Charlotte Afriat (Monaco). The first four across the line in each heat automatically qualifies for the semi-final along with the next four fastest times. The semifinals will run off at 8.10 am (T&T time).

Leading up to the U-20 event, Bertrand clocked 11.70 seconds to cop silver in the women’s U-20 100 at the North American, Central American and Caribbean U-18, U-20 and U-23 Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica, last month (July). Camille Rutherford of the Bahamas won the gold medal with 11.17 and she enters as the favourite in the dash.

The start of competition which was scheduled for Tuersday to Wednesday due to logistical challenges arising from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic according to World Athletics on Saturday. It will conclude on August 22 as previously scheduled.

“The impact of COVID on teams travelling and logistics of moving vital equipment around the world have proven to be a challenge. However, the full athletics programme is able to be accommodated across five days rather than five-and-a-half days with minimal impact on the athletes attending from more than 100 countries,” the sport’s world governing body said in a statement.

World Athletics, which had originally set the U-20 Championships for 2020, but were delayed by a year also because of the COVID-19 crisis, said the new schedule will deliver a “fuller and faster-paced event” while stressing its determination to give athletes as many chances to compete despite the disruptions brought about by the pandemic.

“We would like to thank our athletes and their teams, our suppliers and the local organising committee in Kenya for accommodating this change and working collaboratively in challenging times to stage a great championships for these young, promising athletes as they begin their athletics journey,” the statement added.

On Tuesday, athletes from 110 countries took part in the traditional parade during the opening ceremony.

On Thursday, Leacock will race in heats of the men’s 400m hurdles from and on day three of the five-day championships, McKay will face the starter in heats of the men’s 200m, Friday.