BYDGOSZCZ, Poland — It was a better second morning of the IAAF World Under-20 Championships at Zawiszaw stadium in Bydgoszcz, Poland as six of the Jamaican athletes who competed, advanced in their respective disciplines.

 Sprint hurdlers Damion Thomas and De’Joir Russell both advanced to this afternoon’s semi-finals after contrasting races; quarter-milers Christopher Taylor and Sean Bailey both made progress to tomorrow’s semi-finals, as did female 400m hurdlers Nicolee Foster and Shannon Kalawan.

 Vanesha Pusey made it past the first round of the women’s 100m while triple jumper Jordan Scott is into the final set for Thursday.

 It appeared the Jamaicans responded to the much better weather conditions as after a gloomy, wet and cold start on Tuesday, the sun came out in all its brilliance today.

 National Junior champion Thomas won his first round heat in the 110m hurdles in 13.48 seconds running into a head wind (-0.8m/s), the  fifth best time overall and told OBSERVER ONLINE he has some mistakes to fix later today.

 “I had a bad reaction and was last to the first hurdle, I can’t let that happen again,” he said.

 Russell led up to the seventh hurdle then appeared to slow down suddenly and finished third in 13.83 seconds (-0.1m/s) to gain an automatic qualifying spot.

 Sixteen year-old Taylor won his heat in 46.73 seconds but had to run hard in the final 80 metres after he came off the last bend in fourth place.

Bailey was second in his heat in 46.83 seconds as both took their places in Thursday’s second round.

Medal contender Kalawan was second in her first round 400m hurdles heat in 58.23 seconds, beaten by Bahrain’s Aminat Yusuf Jamal who ran a National Under-20 Record 56.94 seconds from lane two.

Foster was third in her heat in 59.19 seconds to join Kalawan in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Pusey was the only qualifier in the women’s 100m after she ran 11.60 seconds (1.7m/s) for fourth in her heat and advanced on time to the semi-finals.

Patrice Moody who won the National Junior title last month, was left back in the blocks and was seventh in her race in a disappointing 12.02 seconds (-0.8m/s).

The women’s 100m semi-finals and finals promises to be one of the highlights of the championships with three legitimate contenders for the gold medal- home town favourite Ewa Swoboda who ran a wind-aided 11.10 seconds (2.7m/s), American Candace Hill who won her heat in 11.43 seconds (-0.8m/s) and Trinidad and Tobago’s Khalifa St Forte- 11.50 seconds (-1.7m/s).

Throw in Great Britain’s dark horse Imani-Lara Lansiquot who ran a massive personal best 11.17 seconds (1.7m/s) to win her heat and the race for gold could be epic.

Meanwhile Scott jumped 15.99m (0.5m/s) for third in his group and sixth overall to advance to Thursday’s triple jumps but Javier Lowe failed to advance after managing only 15.38m for 23rd overall.

Janelle Fullerton had one legal throw in the shot put qualifying, 14.33m and finished 15th overall, outside of the top 12 that advanced to the final later today.

Paul Reid