MONCTON, Canada, July 25 (PNA/Xinhua) — The United States raced to win the 4x100m relay Saturday in the second fastest time of the athletics junior world championships.
Michael Granger, 100m silver medalist Charles Silmon, Eric Harris and Oliver Bradwell paced well to clock 38.93 seconds, beating the Jamaicans and Trinidad and Tobago runners but the latter still produced their best races of the season with times of 39.55 and 39.72 seconds respectively.
Britain missed out on a medal by failing to complete a hand-off.
“We wanted to try to go 38 seconds, try to break the record, or at least win. And that’s what we came out with,” said Silmon after the race.
“They said, Jamaica’ s going to come out with it, that’s what they thought, Jamaica’ s going to come out and win it, but we won. We knew we had the speed, but we had to work on the sticks and get the stick around the track, and that’s what we did. It felt real good coming down the homestretch,” Silmon said.
Dexter Lee of Jamaica, who won the men’ s 100 meter sprint earlier this week, was disappointed with his team’ s second-place finish. Still, he put a brave face on a track meet that also saw him miss the chance to win a medal in the 200 meter sprint because of a false start in a qualifying heat.
“I’ m really proud of myself to know that I got two medals at the World Juniors. I think I ran decently. I just did what I have to do and ran decently and came second,” Lee said after the race.
Bradwell said the men’s team was motivated by the U.S. women’s team, which had just won the gold medal in the 4x100m, beating out Germany and the Netherlands and setting a new national junior record in the event.
“Our ladies delivered first,” Bradwell said. “They gave us motivation.”
In the women’s 4x100m relay final, Stormy Kendrick, Takeia Pinckney, Dezerea Bryant and Ashley Collier, clocked a winning time of 43.44 seconds, which was 0.12 seconds faster than their qualifying race Friday night. This was their fourth successive relay win at the junior championships.
The Germans and Dutch also posted national records of 43.74 and 44.09, but members of the British team, led by Jodie Williams failed to pass their baton properly at the end of the second leg and did not finish the race.
Belarus’s Katsiaryna Artsiukh fought the wind in the small open stadium to win the women’s 400m hurdles in 56.16, her personbal best. She beat her closest competitors, Evonne Britton of the United States and Vera Rudakova of Russia, by a full second. Before the home stretch, the American and Russian sprinters were leading the race.
Artsiukh said she had doubts she could overtake the two sprinters down the final stretch, “but I just kept pushing and I am very happy that I finished first.”
Britton and Rudakova posted personal best times in the race.
In the 5000m race Kenya’s David Bett and John Kipkoech dominated the competition and Bett took the gold with a time of 13:23.76.
Bett and Kipkoech left the rest of the pack behind with six laps of the race remaining. They reclaimed the gold from their Ethiopian rivals, who were the last winner at the last two World Championships.
“I was expecting to win,” said Bett who was wary of Kipkoech. “I had no real plan, but I knew that my friend was very strong and I decided to run in front of him.”
Swedish pole vaulter Angelica Bengtsson won her event by clearing 4.25 meters ahead of Victoria von Eynatten of Germany and Holly Bleasdale of Britain. Von Eynatten finished at 4.20 meters while Bleasdale vaulted 4.15 meters.
“I feel good,” said Bengsston. “The height was not that good, but it’ s a gold medal.”
Bengtsson, disappointed that she didn’t set a record, added: “The wind was blowing right from the side. But that actually didn’ t bother me until 4.30m. It was only one jump that got affected, but I don’ t know what happened. I will have to watch the videos.”
Sophie Hooton, a former ballet dancer, became the first Briton ever to win a World Junior Championships gold medal in the hammer throw, and she set a national record of 66.01 meters.
Barbara Spiler of Slovenia landed her hammer just 10 centimeters behind Hooton’ s, while Li Zhang of China threw 62.72 meters to win the bronze medal.
“I’ m exhausted but so excited,” Hooton said. “I got a bit tired between the middle two rounds but I knew I just had to go for it on my last throw. I thought after qualifying that I had a really good chance but I wanted to stay calm and just focus on the day because anything can happen in a final.” (PNA/Xinhua)
