Roshawn Clarke ran a personal best 50.93s, easing down at the line, to win heat one of the men’s 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday morning.

Clarke looked at ease for the entire race and even had time to glance around to see where his challengers were, after clearing the final hurdle as he booked his spot in Saturday afternoon’s semifinals.

His teammate Devontie Archer, who says that he is at the championships to have fun, showed that he means business, as he too booked his spot in the semifinals, while running from the front.

Archer won heat four in 52.17s while easing across the line, which suggests that there is a lot more left in the tank for the semifinal.

Unlike the women, the men will have to run three rounds of competition in order to earn medals.

Clarke goes into the semifinals with the second fastest time while Archer has the seventh fastest time going in.

Meanwhile, in the men’s 800m, Jamaica’s lone representative Chevonne Hall, advance to the semifinals after finishing third in heat two in 1:49.57, behind winner Kacper Lewalski of Poland who was first in 1:48.84 and Abdullahi Hassan of Canada who was second in 1:49.09.

Hall began the race in his usual front running style but was unable to respond to the push from Lewalski and Hassan in the latter stages of the race when there was a mad scramble to the finish line. Hall will contest the semifinal on Saturday afternoon.

–Dwayne Richards