Gold, silver for Jamaica at Commonwealth Youth Games
Jamaica’s young athletes got off to a good start at the 5th Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa winning two medals, a gold and a bronze on Sunday’s opening day of competition.
The gold by the boys’ 4x400m team and bronze by high jumper Lushane Wilson ensured Jamaica will surpass the two bronze medals they won four years ago when the event was held on the Isle of Man.
Additionally, Junelle Bromfield and Kevin Nedrick both advanced to their respective finals after the first rounds on Sunday.
Bromfield clocked 53.61 seconds to qualify for the girls’ 400m final that was scheduled for 9:00 pm Jamaica time last night with the fastest time after winning the first qualifying heat.
India’s 16-year-old Jisna Mathew won the third heat in 54.52 seconds, while Nigeria’s Idamadudu Praise Oghenef won hat number two in 54.79 seconds.
Nedrick, who represented Jamaica at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Chile in July, had the eighth best throw of 50.08m to get into the final of the discus throw.
South Africa’s Werner Jakobus Visser leads with 60.94m ahead of Scotland’s George Evans (58.19m), with another South African Burger Lambrechts in third place with 58.02m.
The boys’ mile relay team of Leonardo Ledgister, Michael Bentley, Leon Clarke and Jauavney James clocked 3:13.45 minutes to win the gold medal, while Samoa took silver with 3:43.15 with Nigeria, the other team taking part, were disqualified.
Wilson, who was a finalist at the World Youth Championships, took third place in Samoa, clearing 2.11m, losing the silver to Sri Lanka’s Roshan Dammika R Ranatu on the count back, but beating Malaysia’s Muhammad S Ahmad after all three finished with the same height.
India’s Tejaswin Shankar won with 2.14m.
Late yesterday, Bentley was due to run in the heats of the boys 200m, Ledgister and James were down for the heats of the boys 400m hurdles and Clarke was down to compete in the first round of the boys 800m.
Meanwhile in the pool, Joseph Black and Annabella Lyn got personal best times in their events. Black clocked 27.34 seconds in the 50m butterfly event and Lyn swam 2:11.66 minutes in the 200m freestyle.
— Paul Reid
