Photo by Anthony Foster
Members of Jamaica's silver medal winning 4x100m teams pose on yesterday's penultimate day of the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The boys (from left) are Dexter Lee, Oshane Bailey, Nickel Ashmeade and Yohan Blake. The girls (from left) are Kaycea Jones, Jura Lee, Gayon Evans and Shawna Anderson.

Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

BYDGOSZCZ, Poland:

SILVER WAS the order of the day for Jamaica's junior athletes on yesterday's penultimate day of the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships at the Zawisza Stadium.

Shermaine Williams, along with the sprint relay teams, brought some success on a day when Kayon Robinson suffered a fractured left tibia.

Robinson, who led off Jamaica's 4x400m team, which failed to advance, did well to hand over in a good position, but had to be helped in walking afterwards.

Jamaica's medal tally now stands at five (one gold and four silver) and they are seventh in the medal standings.

The United States (9G, 3S, 2B), Germany (5G, 2B), Kenya (3G, 4S, 1B); Russia (3G, 3S), France (2G) and Romania (2G) are ahead of Jamaica.

Success in hurdles

Jamaica's success yesterday started in the women's 100m hurdles when Williams fought gallantly in the last 50m to secure a medal.

In the end, Williams' time of 13.48 seconds placed her behind American Teona Rodgers (13.40).

Williams was happy to win a medal: "I am feeling good ... I could have finished without a medal, so I am thankful. The plan was to get a good start and to finish strong. I got the start but somewhere between the third and fourth (hurdles) I landed off balance, so I lost it right there."

Natasha Ruddock, Jamaica's other entry, did well in over-coming a hamstring injury to finish sixth in 13.70.

"I am just happy that I completed the final," said Ruddock, who hinted things would have been different if it wasn't for the injury.

Brilliant anchor

In the women's sprint relay, the quartet of Shawna Anderson, Kaycea Jones, Gayon Evans and Jura Levy executed well for second in a season-best 43.98 behind the United States, who won in a world-leading 43.66.

Levy said her brilliant anchor run was to make up for her disa-ppointment in the 200m final. "I am very pleased with the end result," Levy said. "We did our best with a season best, so we are very happy for the medal," she said.

Coach Michael Dyke, who was in charge of the team, said a lot of work was put in with the girls.

"I know it was a little bit shaky, but we tried all the different combinations, so I decided to keep the three Edwin Allen girls (Anderson, Jones and Evans) together and put Jura with the extra speed at the end, I knew we would win a medal," said Dyke.

In the boy's event, Oshane Bailey, Dexter Lee, Nickel Ashmeade and Yohan Blake took Jamaica to second in a season-best 39.25. The US took gold in a world-leading 38.98.

Lee said the team was happy to come away with a medal.

"We have to work with what we got and be satisfied," Lee said of the silver medal.

Ashmeade, said they were looking for gold, but "things changed. We did our best."

Salcia Slack finished 20th in the women's heptathlon with 4,851 points. Carolin Schafer of Germany took the event with a personal best 5,833 points.

Poised to improve

Meanwhile, on today's final day, Keiron Stewart and the men's mile relay team are poised to improve Jamaica's medal tally.

Stewart qualified for today's men's 110m hurdles final with a workman-like 13.61 seconds in his semi-final.

"It wasn't the best race because I hit a few hurdles and stumbled and that gave me the (slow) time," Stewart said.

However, he is now looking forward to today's medal round. "Nothing in life is easy, there are difficulties, and I just have to try and get past them," he said.