Jehue Gordon booked his spot in the men’s 400m hurdles semifinals with a runner-up in the his heat on third morning of action at the 13th IAAF World Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Daegu, South Korea, yesterday. The 2010 World Junior champion was second in heat four of the preliminaries in 49.90 seconds behind the 2005 gold medallist American Bershawn Jackson (49.82). Gordon said he was happy to be in the semis as he felt some tightness in his race. The 19-year-old will run in the second of three semifinals, out of  lane three, at 5.30 am (TT time)/6.30 pm (Daegu time). Gordon will face defending champion Kerron Clement (USA) and former two-time winner Felix Sanchez (Dominican Republic).

A top two place guarantees him his second straight World Championships finals on Thursday. The former Belmont Boys/QRC student athlete was fourth in finals in 48.26 seconds as a 17-year old. Shot putter Cleopatra Borel finished down the field in the women’s shot put finals. The two-time Commonwealth medallist was 13th and last with a throw of 17.62 metres. Borel achieved the mark in the second round after she opened with a foul throw. She did not improve in the third round throwing 17.53 and finished outside of the top eight, thereby missing a chance for three more throws. Borel described her performance as the worst for the year and said she did not know what went wrong. She  failed to sparkle after throwing 18.95m in Sunday’s qualification round. The former NCAA indoor champion set a national outdoor record of 19.42 in July and has three other throws in the 19 metres range in 2011. Renny Quow missed out the finals of the men’s 400m event.

The 2009 bronze medallist was fourth in heat one in 45.72 seconds, well off his first round clocking of 44.84 seconds. Defending champion LaShawn Merritt of USA (44.76), Belgium Kevin Borlee (45.02) and Rabah Yousif of Sudan (45.43)all got to the line ahead of Quow. His time was the 13th quickest overall as only the fastest eight advanced to the finals set for later today. The former world junior champion is next expected to compete as part of T&T men’s 4x400m relay team. The relay heats are set for Thursday with the finals on Friday. After three days of competition T&T lies joint 16th (along with St Kitts/Nevis and Slovenia) on the medal table with one bronze medal. USA is ahead with eight medals (4 gold, 3 silver and one bronze) with Kenya 6 (2, 2, 2) and Russia 4 (1, 2, 1). At the 2009 World Championships T&T won three medals (one silver -men’s 4x100, two bronze - Josanne Lucas, Renny Quow).

Source: www.guardian.co.tt

By Clayton Clarke