BYDGOSZCZ, Poland — Nigel Ellis and Shannon Kalawan qualified for their respective finals after both finished second in their semi-finals heat at IAAF World Under 20 Championships at Zawiszaw stadium in Bydgoszcz, Poland today.

Paul Reid

Ellis clocked 20.78 seconds (2.0m/s) in the 200m behind South Africa’s Tlotliso Leotlela’s 20.58 seconds and advanced to Friday afternoon’s final.

Ellis who said he was confident he would be on the podium today, said he did enough to get to the final and ran the curve hard before shutting it down in the home stretch.

Kalawan improved on her first round effort, clocking 57.62 seconds in her 400m hurdles semi-final, placing second in her semi-final to American medal contender Anna Cockrell who was the fastest qualifier with 56.10 seconds. 

Devia Brown finished 11th in the women’s discus throw, the first ever for a Jamaican woman at this level with a best throw of 48.12m, coming on her final effort.

Vanesha Pusey failed to get into the finals of the women’s 100m after she finished third in her semi-final heat in 11.66 seconds (0.4m/s) as Poland’s Ewa Swoboda ran a personal best and National Junior Record 11.17 seconds to win and Bahrian’s Iman Isa Jassim was second in 11.58 seconds to take the automatic spots.