Jamaica’s boys narrowly miss out on 100m medal at World Under-20 Champs
LIMA, Peru — Jamaica narrowly missed out on a second medal at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships at Estadio Atletico de la Videna in Lima, Peru on Wednesday, after Deandre Daley was fourth in the men’s 100m in 10.33 seconds (-0.9m/s).
Gary Card, Jamaica’s other representative in the event, was fifth in 10.44 seconds.
The men just came up short as South Africa’s Bayanda Walaza was a surprise winner with 10.19 seconds, the third straight time an African was winning the title after back-to-back wins by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. Thailand’s Puripol Boonson won the silver medal with 10.22 seconds and another South African Bradley Nkoana was third with 10.26 seconds.
Daley blamed himself for not finishing on the podium, telling Observer Online that his start was not as good as he liked, adding that “I started tying up around 70 metres which is not like me at all.”
Alana Reid delivered Jamaica’s first medal at the Championships when she won the women’s 100m gold medal in 11.17 seconds (- 0.0m/s) in very cold conditions, not conducive to top- classed sprinting.
The Jamaican Under-20 record holder, led a Caribbean clean sweep of the podium with Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands-11.27 seconds taking silver and Kishaena Niles of Barbados, who is based at the MVP training camp in Kingston, was third in 11.37 seconds.
Reid, who had won a bronze medal in the 200m two years ago in Cali Colombia, told journalists afterwards that she was elated about her performance.
“It’s something that I’ve really been working towards. In 2022, I came third in the 200 and I told myself, this is my last World Junior, so I just want to leave with something that I can look back on.”
“So to come out here tonight and know what I did, I think I was very pleased with my performance, knowing that I’ve been training so hard for this moment, and it’s something that I really appreciate,” Reid said as she warned that Jamaicans should never be underestimated.
“I would say never to count us out, we all come out here and give of our best and sometimes our best is not good enough for you but nevertheless, we are hardworking, we are trying our best to put a smile on our faces and on you guys’ and it’s sometimes it’s hard for us, especially to come out here in this type of weather, but nevertheless we come out here and we give up our best.”
-Paul A Reid