Carifta Games 200m bronze medallist Tirana Mitchell is set to compete in the Women’s 200m heat today at the 8th International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Youth Championships in the Ukraine, even as 400m athlete Jason Yaw’s dreams of victory ended yesterday when he failed to qualify for the final round of his event.
Mitchell, of the Mercury Fast Laners track club, entered the race with a season best of 24.61 seconds and will run in lane 3 against Laurence Jones, Vlatka Sekirnik, Hannah Cunliffe, Õilme Võro, Bryannill Cardona, Oluwatobi Amusan and Jonielle Smith.
Meanwhile, 15-year-old Yaw who trains the Running Braves Athletics Club under the watchful eyes of Julian Edmonds and Sham Johnny, clocked 50.39 seconds and finished eighth in heat two of the semi-finals. The junior 400m athlete, who is also a Carifta Games bronze medallist, came second in the 8th preliminary round with 48.38 seconds on Wednesday, the first day of the Championship.
Yaw who has a personal best performance of 47.76 seconds entered the 400m semi-finals ranked no. 23 but somehow failed to deliver in the race. His semi-finals heat (2) was won by Jamaica’s Martin Manley who ran a personal best in 46.65 second. Abbas Abubaker finished closely behind in 46.85 seconds and also achieved a personal best time.
The finals of the 400m will be contested later this evening and will see two Caribbean athletes: (Jamaicans) Devaughn Barker (lane 1) and Martin Manley (lane 6) facing orders.
The USA’s Ryan Clark is the favourite in the race after winning his semi-finals heat (1) in a World Youth Leading time of 46.33 seconds. Other finalists are Alexander Sampao (46.83 seconds), Batuhan Altintas (46.72 seconds), Mohammed Abbas (46.78 seconds), Ian Mututku (46.87 seconds) and Abbas Abubaker (46.85 seconds).
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