Denzs Simmonds is the third Jamaican thrower to achieve the qualifying mark for the men’s shot put at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships to be held in Cali, Colombia, later this year.

The Calabar High athlete threw a personal record 18.30 metres to win the Class 1 boys event at the Queens Grace Jackson meet at the National Stadium on Saturday.

Simmonds’ winning throw was just short of a full metre better than his previous best 17.37m set last year. He joins World Under-20 leader and teammate Kobe Lawrence (19.61m) and Edwin Allen High’s Christopher Young (18.20m). The qualifying mark for the global championships, which are set for early August, is 18.20m.

Kingston College’s Altwayne Bedward, who threw 17.20m, is the fourth Jamaican in the top six in the world so far.

Brandon Gayle of St Jago High was second on Saturday with 16.56m and William Knibb Memorial’s Chavez Grey third with 16.45m.

Jamaica College’s Zachry Campbell set a new meet record to win the Class 2 shot put event with 17.29m, better than the 16.45m set in 2015 by Wolmer’s Boys’ Kyle Mitchell.

Campbell had two throws over the record with 17.14m on his second effort after opening with a foul.

His Jamaica College teammate Jaylon Calder was second with 16.17m. Kingston College’s Despiro Wray was third with 14.38m.

Kingston College’s Antonio Forbes won the boys class 1,400m hurdles in a World Under-20 leading time of 52.86 seconds, beating Excelsior High’s Jahmani Smith (53.77) and another Kingston College runner, Shamari Jennings (54.22) .

St Jago High’s Machaeda Linton won the class 1 girls 200m in 24.55 seconds (-1.3m/s), followed by the Edwin Allen High pair of Serena Cole (24.59) and Shenequa Vassell (25.23).

Mt Alvernia High’s Carleta Bernard won the class 2 event with 24.25 seconds (-1.5m/s), ahead of Abigail Wolfe of Holy Childhood (24.86) and Mickayl Gardner of Wolmer’s Girls’ (24.95).

— Paul A Reid