Alicke Cranston and Bryan Levell safely navigated their way to the 100m semifinals after finishing second and first in their heats respectively, as action got underway at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday morning.

Cranston who ran a measured race, got out of the blocks quickly, then cruised to the finish line to place second in heat four in 10.45s, behind winner Benjamin Richardson of the Republic of South Africa who has the fastest time of 10.28s going into the semifinals. Mahamat Khalid of Qatar was third in 10.55s and will join the top two in the semifinals.

Levell, who ran out of lane four, controlled his heat from start to finish and cruised home in first place in 10.43s ahead of Dominik Illovsky of Hungary who was second in 10.51s, while Carlos Brown of the Bahamas was third in 10.53. The top three finishers all advanced to the semifinals.

Cranston will run out of lane five in semifinal one at 8:40am local time, while Levell will run out of lane four in semifinal two and will have Richardson of South Africa for company in lane five at 8:48am local time.

-Dwayne Richards