CALI, Colombia— Bouwahjgie Nkrumie lowered the Jamaican men’s Under-20 record, Kobe Lawrence smashed his own personal best in the shot put, both for silver medals, while the Mixed 4x400m Relay team won a bronze as Jamaica opened its medal account on Tuesday’s second day of the 19th World Under-20 Championships at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium in Cali, Colombia on Tuesday.

Jamaica are ninth on the medal table, which is being led by the United States with two gold medals, Ethiopia with a gold and a silver and Kenya and South Africa with a gold and a bronze each.

Nkrumie sprinted to 10.02 seconds (0.8m/s), beaten by a scintillating Word Under-20 record 9.91 seconds from Botwana’s Letsile Tebogo, who successfully defended his title.

Earlier in the afternoon, Nkrumie who went into the championships with a best of 10.22 seconds, set in June, won his semi-final heat in 10.11 seconds, equalling the mark set by two Jamaicans, Yohan Blake set at the CARIFTA Games in Turks and Caicos in 2007 and Christoper Taylor set in June 2018 in Kingston.

Tebogo joined Jamaica’s Dexter Lee as the only men to win back-to-back 100m titles after Lee won titles in Poland in 2008 and Canada in 2010.

Meanwhile, Lawrence, who had a personal best 20.02m in the shot put, extended his life time best twice to end with 20.58m, second best ever by a Jamaican and the first to win a shot put medal at this level.

An unchanged Jamaica team of Jasauna Dennis, Abigail Campbell, Malachi Johnson and Alliah Baker, ran 3:19.98 seconds to take the bronze in the Mixed 4x400m relay, behind the USA, who lowered the championships record for the second straight day with 3:17.69 seconds while India set an Asian area record 3:17.76 seconds for the silver.

Also in the afternoon session, Demario Prince ran a personal best 13.58 seconds (0.3m/s) just under his previous best of 13.60 seconds for second in his 110m hurdles semis and a place in the final.

Dishaun Lamb was fourth in his semi-final in 13.76 seconds and failed to make progress.

Paul A Reid