LIMA, Peru – Lead-off runner Jace Witter has expressed confidence that the Jamaican men’s 4x100m relay team will win the gold medal on Saturday’s final day of the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Lima, Peru, after they led the qualifying with 39.54 seconds on Friday.

The team of Witter, Gary Card, Nyrone Wade and Deandre Daley easily finished ahead of Trinidad and Tobago, who were second in 39.77 seconds and Nigeria who ended third in 40.28 seconds.

Witter, who attends New Forest High in Manchester, said: “Tomorrow, we will get the gold, we cannot tell ourselves anything else, it is not possible, we are Jamaicans, we are strong.”

Fourth in the Under-19 men’s 100m at the national trials in June, Witter was making his first appearance of the world junior championships along with Wade.

“It’s about confidence. It’s about focusing, focusing on your race and the curve and how to pass the baton straight to your teammate,” Whitter said, adding that the exchanges were good.

Jamaica’s medal prospects were helped after the USA failed to complete their race and South Africa, with two medallists in the men’s 100m, were disqualified in the preliminaries.

-Paul A Reid