Long jumper Kavian Kerr wins bronze to hand Jamaica a second medal
Kerr, who won the long jump for St. Jago High School at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Championships in May, jumped a personal best 7.90m to end up among the medals.
Erwan Konate of France won gold with a World U20 leading mark of 8.12m while Colombia’s Jhon Andres Berrio set a new national U20 record of 7.97 to take the silver medal.
Jamaica is in line to win additional medals as Ackera Nugent was the fastest into the finals of the 100m hurdles along with compatriot Oneka Wilson. Nugent, who hold the World U18 record and shares the WU20 record, clocked 13.02 to easily advance to the finals. The 13.02 Nugent ran was equalled by Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji, the younger sister of Tokyo 2020 Olympic 100m and 200m finalist Mujinga Kambundji.
Wilson, meanwhile, ran a personal best 13.39 to advance to the final.
In the 110m hurdles, Vashaun Vascianna cruised in his semi-final that he won in a season-best 13.35s. However, he was not nearly as impressive as Frenchman Sasha Zhoya, who stormed to a new record of 12.93, smashing the time of 12.99 that was jointly held by France’s Wilhem Belocian and Jamaica’s Damion Thomas.
Briana Williams also lost her 200m championship record as the Namibian pair of Christine Mboma and 100m silver medalist Beatrice Masilingi, who took turns at lowering it today. Mboma first took Williams’ 22.50 set in Tampere, Finland in 2018 down to 22.41 before Masilingi lowered it further to 22.19.
Those semi-final performances threw down a challenge to Brianna Lyston and Alliyah Richards, who ran personal best times of 23.18 and 23.70, respectively to also advance to the finals.