Ja bag six medals

By Raymond Graham, Freelance Writer

Jonathan Wade (780) of the US wins the men's 200 metre final at the World Youth championships yesterday. Running at centre is Grafton Ifill of the Bahamas, who finished eighth and Tesfa Latty of Jamaica who finished fourth. - Reuters

Freelance Writer
DEBRECEN, Hungary

ON a day when seven championship records were smashed, Jamaica ended their sojourn at the second World Youth Track and Field Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, with two more medals on the final day of competition to end the meet with six medals, which included one gold, two silver and three bronze to finish 10th overall.

The United States, with 15 medals, which included 5 gold, seven silver and 3 bronze, topped the overall medal standings, with Kenya second with 4 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze and Russia third with 9 medals - 3 gold, four silver and 2 bronze.

Folowing her sister Camille's performance the previous day in the 400m hurdles event, twin Carlene Robinson gave the Jamaicans their third individual medal as she finished third in the girl's 800m in a personal record of two minutes, 06.18 seconds.

It was an encouraging performance by Robinson, who stayed in mid-pack for the first 600 metres and just as she was about to make her move, found herself in traffic problems but was able to run on strongly on the outside in the finl 80 metres to take the bronze.

Kenya's Kibkorir Gherotiche Ruto took the gold in a personal best and championship record of 2:05.5 seconds, with the silver going to Veronika Dleplesarova of the Czech Republic in a time of 2:06.1 seconds.

Jamaica earned their second medal of the day in the penultimate event as the quartet of Shaunette Davidson, Kerron Stewart, Kashain Page and Aneisha McLaughlin played second-fiddle to a very powerful United States team in the girls' medley Relays.

With Davidson (100m) leading off due to an injury to Simone Facey the previous day, the Jamaicans got an even start on the opening leg. Stewart, running the second leg (200m), gave the Jamaicans a slight lead as she cut the gap on 100m champion Alyson Felix. However, Page, running the 300m leg, found 200m championship record winner Angel Perkins too much to handle as Mclaughlin got the baton behind on the final leg.

The Americans took the gold in a world leading time of 2:03.83 minutess as their race was anchored by 400m champion and record holder, Stephanie Smith. Jamaica finished second inside the old record (2:07.70) in 2:07.45 for the silver, with Romania taking the bronze in 2:09.70 minutes.

There was no luck for the boys' quartet of Tesfa Latty, Andre Maxwell, Usain Bolt and Jermaine Golzales in the boyz medley as although they ran well, they had to settle for fourth in 1:52.36 minutes.

Here the United States had to play second-fiddle to Poland as the Polish anchor-leg runner ran magnificently, making up some 12 metres on the American to win in a new championship record of 1:50.46 minutes. The Americans settled for silver in 1:50.90 minutes and South Africa took the bronze in 1:51.53 minutes.

Three other Jamaicans were on the track on yesterday's final day. Latty finished fourth in the boys' 200m in 21.64 seconds, being promoted after finishing sixth due to the disqualification of two other athletes. This included Bahamas' Grafton Ifill, who had finished second but was disqualified for running on the line. Trinidadian Dion Rodriquez got his country's second medal as he was promoted to third after finishing fourth, to take the bronze in 21.36 seconds. The United States took the gold and silver - Jonathan Wade won in a personal best of 20.95 seconds and team-mate Michael Grant, who was promoted after finishing third with 21.30 seconds.

Earlier the United States took the girls' 200m as female MVP of the championships, Angel Perkins, won in a record 23.07 seconds.

The Holmwood Technical pair of Shaunette Davidson, 7th in the high jump with 1.74m, and Peta Gay Beckford, with 4709 points finishing 14th overall in the girl's heptathlon, were Jamaica's two other athletes on the track.

Back to Sport