CALI, Colombia – Jamaica’s mixed 4x400m relay team ran a national under-20 record 3:19.74 to advance to Tuesday’s final at the World Athletics U20 Championships at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium in Cali, Colombia on Monday.

The quartet of Jasauna Dennis, Abigail Campbell, Malachi Johnson and Alliah Baker were second in their semi-final behind the USA who set a championship record 3:18.65.

Their time was faster than the 3:23.04 clocked by the Jamaican 4×400 mixed relay team at last year’s world under-20 championships in Nairobi, Kenya and also the 3:22.23 set by an Under-18 team, also in Kenya, in 2017.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon session of the opening day, Kobe Lawrence qualified for Tuesday’s final of the men’s shotput while both Demario Prince and Deshaun Lamb advanced automatically in the 110m hurdles.

Lawrence, who was eighth at last year’s staging, threw 19.85m on his third attempt, over the automatic qualifying mark of 19.60m. However, his compatriot Christopher Lawrence failed to advance with only one legal mark of 18.13m, on his first attempt, which saw him finish outside the top 12 throwers.

In the 110m hurdles, Prince ran 13.80 seconds (0.2m/s) to win his heat while Lamb was third in his heat in 13.69 seconds (0.5m/s), same time as Bogdan Vidojkovic who ran a Serbian national junior record.

Both female discus throwers, Cedricka Williams, who was a finalist in Nairobi last year, and Abigail Martin, failed to get past the first round after disappointing performances.

Williams, who is ranked joint second in the world with a personal best 56.21m, had a best of 46.20m in her preliminary round. Martin could only manage 38.89m, second to last in the competition.