U20s face setbacks, speedsters in the mood

Cali, Colombia:

JAMAICA’S YOUNG athletes had mixed fortunes on yesterday’s opening day of the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, with medal contender Cedricka Williams counting as the biggest casualty.

Williams failed to advance to the final of the women’s discus despite coming into the championships as the number-two ranked athlete with a personal best of 56.21 metres.

Competing in Group A of the qualifying round, Williams could only manage a throw of 46.20 metres, leaving her ninth in her group and 18th overall.

A disappointed Williams spoke to The Gleaner minutes after completing her throws.

“Definitely, I was ready to do well as I was very confident, but I honestly do not know what went wrong. I think the problem was with my release, but I am young and I will use this bad experience to bounce back in the future,” she said.

Williams’ teammate Abigail Martin had a throw of 38.89 metres to finish 14th in her group and 28th overall.

It was a good day on the track as only Rushana Dwyer failed to advance after a seventh-place finish in her women’s 800-metre heat. Dwyer clocked two minutes, 14.23 seconds (2:14.23) for her finish. All the other athletes on the track moved forward to the next round.

Manager of the Jamaica team, Juliet Parkes, was pleased with the overall performance and said the team will bounce back despite some early setbacks.

“Yes, today (yesterday) is only day one and we had a few disappointments but most of our athletes have advanced to the next round of their events. We have a resilient set of athletes. They have worked hard and they will bounce back,” said Parkes, who also stated that Williams’ setback in the discus would help to spur on the others over the next few days.

Sandrey Davison and Bouwahgjie Nkrumie were impressive in winning their heats in the men’s 100 metres to qualify for today’s sem-finals.

Davison won his heat in 10.29 seconds, running into a negative wind of 2.9 metres per second. Nkrumie clocked 10.39 to win his heat.

The semi-finals are slated for 3:40 p.m.

Championships record

One of the highlights in the event was a new championships record of 10.00 seconds, set by the defefending champion, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, who won his heat easily.

In the men’s 110-metre hurdles, Dishaun Lamb won his heat in 13.67 seconds and is the sixth-fastest qualifier going into today’s semi-finals. While Demario Prince won his heat in 13.80 seconds to be the 14th-fastest qualifier overall.

Kobe Lawrence booked his berth in the final of the men’s shot put after finishing second in his group with 19.85 metres. Teammate Christopher Young failed to advance from his group after a seventh-place finish with 18.13 metres.

Yesterday also saw action in the mixed 4x400 metre relays. The quartet of Jasuana Dennis, Abbigail Campbell, Malachi Johnson and Aaliyah Baker stopped the clock in 3:19.74 to finish second behind the United States, who won the heat in a championships record of 3:18.65. The final takes place today.

Earlier in the day, Brittanie Johnson had a heave of 14.44 metres in the women’s shot put for sixth place in her group and 13th overall, just missing out on a place in the final.