FAVOURITES and training partners Steve Mullings and Nickel Ashmeade stayed on course to clash in today’s final of the 200m on the final day of the JAAA/Supreme Ventures National Senior Trials after easy wins in their semi-final heats on yesterday’s third day at the National Stadium.

Two of the fastest men in the world so far this season, the Clermont, Florida-based duo should battle out for the title and the right to join defending world champion Usain Bolt in the 200m at the IAAF World Championship in Daegu, South Korea in late August.

Mullings, who was third in the 100m on Friday night, won his heat in 20.25 seconds, but says he is not yet sure he will double in Daegu.

Mario Forsythe is in his second final of the championships after taking second in 20.40 seconds, Jason Young ran a personal best 20.53 seconds for third, while Ainsley Waugh was fourth in 20.63 seconds.

Ashmeade, who ran a personal best 19.95 seconds in May, won his semis in 20.41, easily beating Marvin Anderson, 20.59, Kenroy Anderson, 20.61, and Warren Weir, 20.66.

The 200 final will close tonight’s schedule of events.

The 400m final promises to be a battle royal as well as Riker Hylton and Lansford Spence won their respective semi-finals which saw five athletes making the ‘B’ standard of 45.70 seconds.

National record-holder Germaine Gonzales, the only Jamaican with an ‘A’ standard, struggled to third in his semifinal and told the Sunday Observer he was still struggling for fitness after his knee operation.

He described his race as “horrible, I felt bad,” but said today he had no choice but “to dig in hard and make the team,” adding he knew he would not get an inside lane for the final.

Spence, a former champion and 2006 Commonwealth Games finalist, won the second semi-final in a season best 45.51, ahead of 400m hurdles champion Leford Green, 45.61, and defending national champion Oral Thompson, 45.65. Allodin Fothergill was fourth in 45.91.

Former St Jago runner Riker Hylton won the first semi in a new personal best 45.58 ahead of Dwayne Barrett, 45.67, Gonzales, 45.67, and Dwight Mullings, 45.87.

Calabar schoolboy Travis Smikle created the biggest upset of the championships so far when he won the discus with a personal best 59.83m (2kg), beating national record-holder Jason Morgan, 58.71, with Chad Wright third with 55.54 while nursing a knee injury.

Morgan, who attained the ‘B’ standard when he improved on his national record 64.11m in late May, was losing for the first time in a National Senior Championships and this was his worst performance of the year after consistently throwing over 60m all season.

Smikle led from the start and had his best throw in the third round after opening with 52.33m and 57.71m and later told the Sunday Observer it was “a bitter-sweet win” as he was hoping for a throw over 60.

Former Kingston College jumper Tarick Batchelor won the long jump with a slightly wind-aided 8.17m (+2.1m/s), a B standard, that came on his first jump of the afternoon.

The University of Alabama student said he got the first jump right. “I put everything into that jump and it all came together.”

Julian Reid, who is reported to be seeking to change allegiance to Great Britain, was second with 8.08, then rushed off to catch a flight, while Nicholas Gordon was third in 7.92.

Damar Forbes, who is the only Jamaican with the ‘A’ standard and a personal best 8.23 set at the NCAA Championships this year, failed to record a legal jump and told the Sunday Observer he was still hoping he would get a chance to make the team to Daegu.

Forbes, who has just completed his second year at Louisiana State University, said he felt great to be competing here for the first time since leaving the island at age seven.

Aldwyn Sappleton retained his 800m title by holding off a strong-finishing Ricardo Cunningham to win in 1 minute 49.07 seconds to 1:49.19, with Eric Ramsey third in 1:49.72.