BYDGOSZCZ, Poland, CMC – Jamaica’s Tiffany James posted the fastest qualifying time to advance as one of four Caribbean competitors to the semi-final of the women’s 400 metres at the IAAF Under-20 Championships here yesterday.
James ran a controlled race to stop the clock at 52.98 seconds to safely secure a spot in today’s penultimate round.
She will be joined by Cuba’s Roxana Gomez (53.16), Junelle Bromfield of Jamaica (53.21) and Shaquania Dorsett of the Bahamas (54.55).
Tarika Moses of the British Virgin Islands (55.04) and Myia Dorsey of the United States Virgin Islands (55.25) failed to advance.
Meantime, Serena Brown of the Bahamas booked a place into the women’s discus final with a new Bahamian junior record.
Brown, who needed a minimum of 51.50m to advance to the final, started her campaign with 47.82m before improving to 49.37m and 50.94m in her third attempt to eclipse the previous national best of 49.66m.
She will be joined by Jamaican Devia Brown (49.56m) in the medal round tomorrow.
Earlier, Mario Burke of Barbados led a quartet of Caribbean qualifiers advancing to the semi-finals of the men’s 100 metres.
Burke was the fastest of the Caribbean qualifiers after winning his heat in 10.33 seconds. Jamaicans Raheem Chambers of Jamaica (10.45), Jhevaughn Matherson (10.47) and Jaquone Hoyte of Barbados (10.58) all made it to the semi-final rounds on Wednesday.
The highlight of the opening day was the record-breaking performance of homeboy Konrad Bukowiecki who posted a new world mark in the U20 shot put.
Bukowiecki opened with 22.46m, fouled his second throw but then tossed the put 23.34m to better the previous mark of 23.00m by Jacko Gill of New Zealand.
The morning session on the second day should also have more interest for the Caribbean with competitors in the qualifying rounds of the men’s 110m hurdles, women’s 400m hurdles, men’s triple jump, men’s 400m and the highly anticipated women’s 100m which includes Trinidad and Tobago’s Khalifa St Fort.
