Jamaica’s medal chase at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships at the Zawiszaw Stadium in Bydgoszcz, Poland, got off to a disastrous start yesterday after women’s team captain and medal favourite Shanice Love fouled out of the first round of the women’s discus throw event.

Love, the National Junior Record holder with 54.72m and who has been unbeaten all season, was expected to easily qualify for the final given the automatic qualifying distance of 51.50m.

The US college-bound athlete, who set the National Junior Record twice this year, told journalists she was “disappointed” and that she was “not in rhythm”.

It was her second major disappointment at this level after she also failed to make a legal mark at the last World Under-18 Championships in Eugene, Oregon, two years ago.

Devia Brown lessened the impact to some extent after she threw a personal best 49.56m on her final attempt to become the first Jamaican woman to qualify for the final of the discus throw at the World Under-20 level, her second time in an IAAF final after making the final 12 at the World Youth Championships last year in Cali, Columbia.

She started with a big throw that looked close to the 50-metre mark, but she just fouled then threw 45.51m in the second round.

On the track, national junior champion Tiffany James led all qualifiers in the women’s 400m after she easily won her first round heat in 52.98 seconds, while favourite Junelle Bromfield was also a winner in 53.21 seconds, the fifth best, to advance to today’s semi-finals.

A relaxed-looking James, who won by a wide margin, told reporters she had “no race plans, just wanted to qualify as easy as possible”, but added she was not planning on running too slowly.

Bromfield, with a big smile plastered on her face, said she felt comfortable throughout the race. “I ran the first 50 metres, then relaxed, felt them at 200m and picked it up again and just held my composure.”

Promoted to the number one spot after World Junior Leader Salwa Eid Naser did not enter the competition, Bromfield told reporters here that she can’t afford to get too comfortable as on any day another athlete could run a personal best and beat her.

“I am very confident and determined, but I can’t afford to relax,” she said.

Men’s 100m sprinters Jhevaughn Matherson and Raheem Chambers will continue their quest to win a medal for Jamaica for the first time since 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, when Odean Skeen won bronze.

Both advanced from yesterday’s first round, after placing third to earn automatic qualification to today’s semi-finals set for 7:20 pm here (12:20 pm Jamaican time) and possible final set for two hours and 15 minutes later.

However, both had issues with the starting blocks which they said were new to them and were not the ones they had been practising with the past three days.

Matherson, who clocked 10.47 seconds (0.6m/s) in his heat behind Brazil’s Paulo Andre De Oliveira with 10.31 seconds and Khairul Hafi Jantan of Malaysia with 10.44 seconds, admitted he has some work to do.

“My start was a bit sluggish; I have to improve and once the start gets better I will be doing better,” he said. “I have been working on the start and it seems to be improving.”

Chambers, the national champion, was timed in 10.45 seconds (-0.6m/s), beaten to the line by Barbados’ Mario Burke in 10.33 seconds and Japan’s Kento Oshima who ran a season’s best 10.44 seconds.

He was still confident of making it to the final, however, saying: “This was just the first round and the aim was to come out and qualify and I shook off some cobwebs and getting ready for the next round.”

The day got off to a slow start as both long jumpers and shot putters failed to make progress on a morning that was affected by rainy and cool conditions, though the weather gradually improved.

National shot put champion Sanjae Lawrence agonisingly missed qualification to the final of the men’s shot put, finishing 13th after the first round, and failed to make it to the top 12 into yesterday’s final.

Throwing in cool and rainy conditions, Lawrence had a best mark of 18.26m, just 18 centimetres short of the final.

Lawrence, who threw a personal best 19.45m at the JAAA National Junior Championships a month ago, was sixth in his group, but was edged by South Africa’s Burger Lambrechts’ 18.44m.

A disappointed Lawrence told the Jamaica Observer, “the conditions were bad and even when the rain started, they kept us out there throwing. I am not pleased with my effort.”

The other Jamaican, Kevin Nedrick, was 27th overall with a throw of 16.63m as 28 throwers registered a legal mark in the competition.

“This was not what I expected,” he said, “but I have to accept the result on the day. The experience was good and I learned that I have to work harder, as I can’t just show up and expect to win.”

Nedrick will also contest the discus throw starting on Saturday.

There were other disappointments in the long jump as ShawnD Thompson registered a best mark of 7.33m (-1.3m/s) to finish 19th overall, while Obrien Wasome had three fouls in his final competition as a junior.

Thompson started well with 7.33m, then jumped 7.19m (-0.7m/s) before fouling his final effort and could not hide his disappointment, telling the Observer: “I blundered on the last jump. I came out to do my best but it did not happen and I am disappointed.”

Wasome, who is heading to college in the US, lamented: “I guess it was not my day, I kept adjusting my run up, but I kept fouling, so it was not my day.”