BYDGOSZCZ – Mario Burke of Barbados led a quartet of Caribbean qualifiers in the men’s 100 metres in the morning session of the first day of the IAAF Under-20 Championships in Poland yesterday.
Burke was the fastest of the Caribbean qualifiers, winning his heat in 10.33 seconds. Jamaicans Raheem Chambers (10.45) and Jhevaughn Matherson (10.47) and Jaquone Hoyte of Barbados (10.58) all made it to today’s semi-final rounds.
Akanni Hislop of Trinidad and Tobago (10.88) did not make the top 24 qualifiers and Hakeem Huggins of St Kitts and Nevis did not start his preliminary race.
“I’m confident of my ability even though I didn’t execute the race as I should,” said Burke.
“But I ran a decent time to get me through to the semi-finals. The conditions were ideal for sprinting so let’s see what it’s like for tomorrow [today].”
Jamaica’s Tiffany James posted the fastest qualifying time to advance as one of four Caribbean competitors to the semi-finals of the women’s 400 metres.
James ran a controlled race to stop the clock at 52.98 seconds to safely secure a spot in today’s penultimate round.
She will be joined by Cuba’s Roxana Gomez (53.16), Junelle Bromfield of Jamaica (53.21) and Shaquania Dorsett of the Bahamas (54.55).
Serena Brown of the Bahamas booked a place into the women’s discus final with a new Bahamian junior record.
Brown, who needed a minimum of 51.50m to advance to the final, started her campaign with 47.82m before improving to 49.37m and 50.94m in her third attempt to eclipse the previous national best of 49.66m.
She will be joined by Jamaican Devia Brown (49.56m) in the medal round tomorrow.
Today’s morning session on the second day should also have more interest for the Caribbean with competitors in the qualifying rounds of the men’s 110m hurdles, women’s 400m hurdles, men’s triple jump, men’s 400m and the highly anticipated women’s 100m which includes Trinidad and Tobago’s Khalifa St Fort and Barbadian Tristan Evelyn. (CMC)
