Jamaica just missed topping the medal table at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships for the first time after the United States won the men’s 4x400m relays, the final event of the six-day championships, to edge the Jamaicans by one gold medal.

The Jamaican team won four medals on Saturday — a gold by Kerrica Hill as she set a championships record 12.77 seconds (0.2m/s) in the 100m hurdles and three silver medals in Cali, Colombia. The Jamaicans won 16 medals overall, including six gold, seven silver and three bronze.

The previous best by Jamaica came in Tampere, Finland, in 2018 when they won 12 medals, including four gold.

The USA finished with 15 medals, comprising seven gold, four silver and four bronze. Ethiopia were third with 12 medals (six gold, five silver and a bronze), while Kenya were next with 10 medals (three gold, three silver and four bronze).

Jamaica were also second in the placing table, which involves points garnered from finalists, with 126. The USA topped that table with 166, while Ethiopia were third with 116.

Hill led the way on Saturday as she obliged as the favourite, leading a Jamaican 1-2 as her teammate Alexis James also ran a personal best 12.87, her third lifetime best at the championships.

Hungary’s Anna Toth took the bronze with a national Under-20 record 13.00.

Hill, who lowered the Jamaican Youth Record and the World Youth Best, broke the previous record of 12.85 set in 2016 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, by Elvira Herman of Belarus.

It was the third championship record for Jamaica at the championships after Tina Clayton ran 10.95 to win the women’s 100m, breaking the 11.03 set by American Twanisha Terry.

Triple jumper Jaydon Hibbert jumped 17.27m on Friday to break Cuban Jordan Diaz’s 17.15m. Both previous records were set in Tampere in 2018.

It was the second medal of the championships for both athletes as they were part of the world Under-20 record-setting 4x100m relay team. James, who ran in the preliminaries, was replaced by Hill in the final.

Jamaica’s two 4x400m relay teams won silver medals behind the Americans. The women’s team of Abigail Campbell, Oneika McAnuff, Alliah Baker and Dejeanea Oakley ran 3:31.59 minutes, behind the USA who won gold with 3:28.06. Great Britain took bronze in 3:31.86.

Delano Kennedy, who false started in the men’s 400m finals, ran a fantastic anchor leg to take the men’s 4x400m team from fifth place to the silver medal as the team ran 3:05.72. The Jamaicans finished behind the USA (3:04.47) , while Canada were third with a national Under-20 record 3:06.50.

Christopher Young was eighth in the men’s discus throw with a best of 60.31m, while shot put silver medallist Kobe Lawrence was 10th with 59.96m.

Machaeda Linton finished ninth in the women’s triple jump with a best of 12.86m (0.3m/s), missing a place in the top eight by a mere five centimetres.

— Paul A Reid