One more medal for Jamaica

Jamaica's medal tally at the 13th IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, was improved by one on yesterday's final day of competition, as the women's 4x400m team helped themselves to a bronze medal in the event.

The quartet of Jodyann Muir, Jeneive Russell, Natoya Goule and Chris-Ann Gordon returned a season's best 3:32.24 to push the team's final medal count to three - one gold, one silver and a bronze respectively.

Jamaica went into the event as the world leader, but lost their rhythm early on in the contest as the United States took control of the race and led all the way to post a world-leading time of 3:31.20 seconds to capture the gold medal.

Nigeria finished second and claimed the silver medal in 3:31.84 .

There was, however, at least one controversial issue for the Jamaicans, as the team's chance of winning was derailed by the officials, who placed the second-leg runner at the wrong mark, forcing lead-off runner Muir to run nearly 10 metres extra.

In the final event of the meet, the Boys' 4x400m final, the Jamaicans had a gallant run, especially from Jermaine Gayle on the third leg who did well to put the team into a medal-winning position.

Outstanding Wolmer's Boys athlete Dwayne Extol received the baton in second place but was overtaken in the last 50 metres by the athletes from Nigeria and Great Britain. The Jamaicans had to settle for fourth place. They can, however, take heart from the fact that they ran their fastest time this year after the clock was stopped on 3:07.36 .

The United States made it a clean sweep in the relays as they captured the event in a world-leading time of 3:04.76. Like their female colleagues, the Nigerians copped the silver after finishing second in a national junior record of 3:06.36, while Great Britain was third for the bronze in a season best 3:06.49.

The next staging of the World Junior Championships will take place in Barcelona, Spain, in 2012.

Kenya and the United States both topped the medal table with 15 medals, but the Kenyans won seven gold medals in comparison to six by the United States.

Final medal count of top 10 countries

GoldSilver BronzeTotal1. Kenya 7 44152. USA 6 5 4153. RUSSIA 4 3 2 94.CUBA 3 1 0 45. Ethiopia 2 3 0 56. GBR 2 2 4 87 . FRANCE 2 0 1 38. GER 1 4 1 69. JAPAN 1 2 2 510. JAM 1 1 1 3