media_artricles :: 2013

Jamaica leads medal tally at World Youth Champs T&T’s Farinha in 200m final

DONETSK—Jamaica continued its domination of the sprint hurdles, as Marvin Williams clocked a new World Youth leading time of 50.39 seconds to win the Boys’ 400 metres hurdles at the eighth IAAF World Youth Championship yesterday. Williams surprised his rivals, including schoolmate Okeen Willliams (no relation), to take the gold medal and a fourth for Jamaica in the tally. Okeen, the pre-race favourite and with 50.53, the fastest time in the world to win his semifinal, fell on the penultimate hurdle and a clear path and comfortable win for Marvin ahead of Yang Wang of China in 50.78 and American Kenneth Selmon in 51.30.

In the girls’ equivalent, Tia-Adana Belle of Barbados clocked a personal best of 58.42 to secure silver behind South African Helene Swanepoel with a World Youth leading time of 58.08. Earlier, Christoff Bryan added his name to medals’ sheet with a bronze in the Boys’ High Jump when he cleared 2.16 metres, the same height as Laquan Nairn of the Bahamas but with fewer faults. Caribbean athletes could also feature on the final day of competition today with Reynier Mena of Cuba, Michael O’Hara of Jamaica and Jonathan Farinha of T&T as favourites for the Boys’ 200m final.

Mena has the fastest qualifying time of 20.72, followed by O’Hara’s 20.75 and 20.86 from Farinha. Kristal Liburd of St Kitts & Nevis is into the Girls’ Long Jump final, while Anderson Peters of Grenada and Denzel Pratt of the Bahamas will throw in the Javelin event. The British Virgin Islands Youth compete in the Girls’ Medley Relay while Jamaica and the Bahamas in the Boys’ version. Jamaica leads the medal tally with six including four gold medals, followed by Australia with three and China with two gold medals. Cuba and Barbados are the only other Caribbean countries with medals—Cuba (one gold, one silver and one bronze) and Barbados with one silver medal. (CMC)

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