More medals expected today
Oregon — Jamaica is expected to add to its medal tally today, the penultimate day of the six-day 15th IAAF World Junior Championships at Hayward Field.
Tyler Mason’s silver medal in a new national junior record 13.06 seconds in the men’s 110m hurdles on Thursday afternoon breathed new life into the campaign and with five Jamaicans in four finals late yesterday, the expectations were for more medals.
The finals of both 4x100m relays will be run today following the first rounds late yesterday, while the first round of the 4x400m relays will be run with the finals set for tomorrow.
Jaheel Hyde in the 400m hurdles was the biggest hope, while Michael O’Hara and Natalliah Whyte were down to run in the men’s and women’s 200m finals, respectively, and Christoff Bryan and Clayton Brown had advanced to the final of the men’s high jump.
The first round of both sprint relays were yesterday evening as well with the final set for today’s lone session.
In yesterday’s first session that took place in brilliant sunshine and beneath blue skies, high jumper Krista Gay Taylor and sprint hurdlers Yanique Thompson and Daeshon Gordon highlighted the Jamaicans’ performances.
Taylor cleared a personal best 1.82m to advance to tomorrow’s final, while Thompson and Gordon were both fourth in their respective first-round heats and advanced to today’s semi-finals.
Taylor is attempting to be the first Jamaican medallist in the event at the World Juniors, but it will be a hard task as she failed to clear the automatic qualifying mark of 1.85m yesterday.
Taylor cruised through the first four rounds, passing at 1.65m, then got first time clearances at 1.70m, 1.75 and 1.79m. Her first failure came at 1.82m before she knocked off the bar three times at 1.85m.
Thompson, the World Youth champion, and Gordon, who beat her at the JAAA National Junior Championships last month, finished fourth in the first-round 100m hurdles heats and booked automatic qualifying spots.
Thompson clocked 13.70 seconds (1.6m/s) in her heat, while the US-based Gordon ran 13.76 seconds (1.7m/s).
Kevon Robinson’s 1 minute 51.89 seconds was not good enough to see him make any progress in the men’s 800m event.
Glenford Watson threw a personal best 56.30m on his first attempt in the men’s discus, but finished 16th overall and failed to advance to the final.
He also threw 54.89m and a foul to become seventh in his group.
Women’s shot putters Gleneve Grange and Rochelle Frazer also failed to advance from the first round. Grange finished with a best of 13.95m for 22nd place overall, two places better than her teammate who had a best throw of 13.78m.
Men’s triple jumpers Clayton Brown and Odaine Lewis appeared to be struggling with leg injuries and performed below expectations.
Brown, who had qualified for the final of the high jump yesterday, looked to be favouring a sore ankle and made just one legal jump, landing at 15.37m, fouled his second jump then passed up on his final jump.
Lewis, the Carifta Games and Central American and Caribbean Junior champion, aggravated an old ankle injury on his first jump and could only manage 15.01m in the second round.