Sprint sensation Tina Clayton delivered herself a belated birthday gift when she sped to a personal best 11.09 seconds to land the Women’s 100 metres gold medal at the World Under 20 Championships in Nairobi Kenya on Thursday morning.
Namibia’s Beatrice Masilingi took the silver in 11.39 while Switzerland’s Melissa Gutschmidt pipped Nigeria’s Praise Ofoku to the bronze medal, clocking a time of 11.51.
Jamaica’s other representative in the event, Kerrica Hill, could only manage seventh in 11.67.
Clayton’s win opened Jamaica’s medal tally at the games and underlines the island’s World dominance of the Women’s 100 metre sprint as Elaine Thompsons Herah is the Olympic 100 metres champion and Shelly Ann Frasrer Pryce is the World 100 metres champion.
Clayton, who has roots in Westmoreland, follows the footsteps of her compatriot and double Sprint champion, Briana Williams, who mined gold in both the 100 and two hundred metres in Tampere, Finland in 2018.
Clayton’s 11.09 clocking betters her former personal best of 11.17 set while racing to gold at the NACAC U18 Championships in San Jose Costa Rica in July.
Meanwhile, Jamaica had no representation in the Men’s 100m final at the championships as both medal contenders failed to progress from their semi-finals.
Bryan Levell, had a false start in his semi-final while Alicke Cranston finished eighth in his heat, clocking 10.94 seconds.
The event was won by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo in a time of 10.19 seconds ahead of South Africa’s Benjamin Richardson 10.28 and Cuba’s Shanier Rengifo.
Earlier, Jamaica’s Kobe Lawrence finished eighth in the men’s Shot Put with an effort of 18.32m. Cuba’s Juan Carley Vasquez Gomez won the gold medal with a throw of 19.73m. Belarus’ Yauheni Bryhi took silver with a personal best throw of 19.70m and Switzerland’s Jephte Vogel, the bronze, with 19.16m.
Jamaica missed out on a podium finish on the first day of competition (Wednesday ) in the inaugural staging of the 4×4 metres mixed relay, at the championship when the quartet of Shaemar Uter, Alliah Baker, Aalliyah Francis amd Malachi Johnson completed the race in a season’s best of 3:20.60 for a fourth place finish. The gold medal went to Nigeria.
Barrington Flemming
Staff Reporter
