Olympic–bound Machel Cedenio will run for gold in the men’s 400m finals later today at 14th IAAF World Junior Track and Field Championships, in Barcelona, Spain. Cedenio qualified for the finals after finishing second in the second of three semifinal heats at the Monteju Stadium, the same venue used for the 1992 Olympic Games. The Presentation College, San Fernando student clocked 46.59 seconds in securing a top two spot to qualify for the medal round. Cedenio, the 2011 Carifta Junior double champion will seek to emulate the feat of Renny Quow who struck gold at the 2006 edition of the meet in Beijing, China.
World leader and favorite for the gold, Luquelin Santos (Dominican Republic) 45.98 cruised to victory in the first heat while another American Aldrich Bailey landed the third heat in the fastest time of 45.79 ahead of Javon Francis of Jamaica (46.06). The finals are set for 9 pm (3 pm TT Time). Reubin Walters, Lisa Wickham and Hezekeil Romeo bowed out of action. Walters missed out on making the men’s 110m hurdles (99.0cm) finals after finishing 10th quickest in the semifinals crossing the line fifth in heat three. The Memphis/Mucurapo East Sec athlete was rewarded though with a personal best with 13.73 improving on the 13.92 in the heats the day before. Wickham (Concorde/St. Francois Girls) finished down the field in the women’s 100m semifinals in 21st overall clocking 12.19 in taking sixth place in heat 2.
Bahamian Anthonique Strachan took the heat in 11.68 and went on the win the gold medal in the finals in a world leading junior time of 11.20. Keshorn Walcott will begin his quest for gold in in the men’s javelin event. The World leader (82.83m) will be in action in Group A and is expected to take the field at 9:00am(3:00am). The Toco Secondary graduate should have little problem getting over the 72.00m qualifying mark to advance to tomorrow’s finals. Kernesha Spann, Brandon Benjamin Jonathan Farinha and Jereem Richards will be in action. Spann is down to contest the women’s 400m hurdles preliminaries set to come off at 9:15am/3:15am. The Neon Trackers/St Francois Girls will start in heat two from lane eight and will be looking for a top four spot to be assured of a place in tomorrow’s semifinals.
Results
Women
100m semifinals
(Top eight advance to finals)
21 Lisa Wickham T&T 12.19(-2.6) 6h2
Men
400m Hurdles prelims
(Top 24 advance to finals)
15 Brandon Benjamin T&T 52.01 1h2
Shot put qualification
(Top 12 advance to the finals)
31 Hezekiel Romeo T&T 17.50 17 g A
(17.15, x, 17.5)
110m Hurdles (99.0cm) semifinals
(Top eight advance to finals)
10th Reubin Walters T&T 13.73(-0.5m/s) 5h3
400m semifinals
8 Machel Cedenio T&T 46.59 2h2
-Clayton Clarke
Source: www.guardian.co.tt