Jamaica's quartet pose for a picture after topping their heat of the womne's 4x400m relays in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.
Loop News/Marlon Reid
A prayer before making their way into the stadium was the perfect way for the Jamaican quartet to start their bid in the women’s 4X400m relays and they will indeed challenge for a medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
This, as they booked their spot in Sunday’s showpiece event, after finishing tops in their heat on Saturday.
Cherokee Young, running from lane eight, ran the lead leg for the Jamaicans handing off to Nickesha Pryce, who ran a well-paced leg to send Shiann Salmon on her way.
Salmon did well to maintain the gap for Stacey-Ann Williams, who only had to run steady and true to take the team home in a new world leading time 3:22.74.
They won ahead of Canada (3:23.29), with Netherlands (3:23.75) taking the third automatic qualifying spot.
Great Britain won the second heat in 3:23.33, ahead of the favourites United States, who were later disqualified via Technical Rule 24.7, as they passed the baton outside the takeover zone.
That meant Belgium (3:23.63) and Italy (3:23.86) got second and third respectively, while Poland (3:24.05) and Ireland (3:26.18) got the two fastest non-automatic qualifying spots.
The final will be the curtain-call event of the nine-day Championships at 2:47pm Jamaica time.
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Sherdon Cowan is a five-time award-winning journalist with 10 years' experience covering sports.
Corinaldi Avenue Primary race to 13-point lead on penultimate day of INSPORTS/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Western Athletics Championships
Defending champion Corinaldi Avenue Primary of St James raced to a 13-point lead on the penultimate day of the INSPORTs/Devon Biscuits Primary Schools Western Athletics Championships on Friday.
After 11 finals, Corinaldi surged to 86.5 points ahead of Black River Primary of St Elizabeth on 73.5 and Howard Cooke Primary of St James sitting in third spot on 54 points. Brompton Primary of St Elizabeth are fourth with 50 points while Glen Stuart Primary completed the top five on 48 points.
The records continued to tumble but the star of the day was Santana Brown of Brompton who won two events the Girls Cricketball Open with 42.04m and returned later to capture the high jump with a record leap of 1.37m.
Her teammate Keneek Grove won the Boys’ Cricket ball Open with a record 64.67m ahead of Corinaldi’s Al-Jay Levy with 63.50m.
Brompton won three events and took an early while Howard Cooke won three relays all in record fashion. In fact, seven of the eight relay records were broken.
Howard Cooke won the Girls’ Class Four 4x100 in 1:02.49 and the Girls’ Class Two in 54.75, both in record fashion. They also won Boys’ Class One in 52.85 just outside the record of 52.19 held by Barracks Road since 2023.
Corinaldi Avenue won two relays in record style, the Boys’ Class Four in a record 58.05 and the Boys’ Class Three in 55.35.
Glen Stuart also won two relays in record fashion capturing the Girls’ Class Three 4x100 in 58.29 and the Boys’ Class Two in 55.25. Barracks Road Primary won the Girls Class One in a record 53.55.
There will be 29 finals tomorrow as teams fight to book their spots in the all-island finals dubbed the Nationals on May 20-22. Lyssons of St Thomas won the Eastern Championship and Naggo Head of St Catherine won the Central Championship.
The National champion will walk away with $600,000. Lyssons are the defending champions.
Lyston through to 100m final at SEC Outdoors; Pryce becomes eighth-fastest Jamaican ever to advance to 400m final
Brianna Lyston secured a chance at the sprint double at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Gainesville, Florida after booking her spot in the final of the women’s 100m.
The LSU sophomore, who ran 22.31 on Thursday to secure her spot in the 200m final, came back a day later to run 11.09 to be the joint-fastest qualifier for Saturday’s final alongside collegiate leader Jacious Sears of Tennessee.
Bahamian Florida junior Wanya McCoy and Jamaican Georgia freshman Jehlani Gordon advanced to the men’s 100m final as the second and ninth fastest qualifiers with 10.09 and 10.17, respectively.
The women’s 400m prelims saw Arkansas senior Nickisha Pryce become the eighth-fastest Jamaican ever in the event.
Pryce, who is Jamaica’s reigning national champion, ran a personal best and collegiate leading 49.72 to advance to the final as the fastest qualifier ahead of teammate Kaylyn Brown who ran 49.86.
LSU sophomore Jahiem Stern produced 13.45 to advance to the final of the 110m hurdles.
In the field, the Jamaican Arkansas pair of Romaine Beckford and Wayne Pinnock won gold in the high jump and long jump, respectively.
Beckford had a best clearance of 2.22m to win ahead of LSU’s Kuda Chadenga (2.19m) and Ole Miss’s Arvesta Troupe (2.14m).
Pinnock, a sliver medalist at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, jumped 8.09m to successfully defend his SEC title.
Georgia’s Micah Larry produced 7.80m for second while Florida’s Caleb Foster was third with the same distance.
Lawrence produces personal best to win shot put at ACC Outdoor Championships
Jamaican Clemson junior Courtney Lawrence produced a personal best 19.75 to win shot put gold at the ACC Outdoor Championships in Atlanta on Friday.
The former Petersfield High standout and 2021 NACAC Under-23 champion produced three throws over 19m throughout his series to take the title ahead of Notre Dame’s Michael Schoaf (19.38m) and Wake Forest’s Thomas Kitchell (19.16m).
Jamaican Florida State sophomore Jordan Turner jumped 7.90m for second in the men’s long jump behind teammate Jeremiah Davis who jumped 7.97m for the win. Miami’s Russell Robinson was third with 7.82m.
Moving to the track where Lawrence’s schoolmate, Oneka Wilson, produced a personal best 13.00 to advance to the final of the women’s 100m hurdles as the fastest qualifier.
Another Jamaican Clemson standout, senior Tarees Rhoden, made it through to the final of the men's 800m with a 1:49.17 effort to finish second in his heat.
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