After a series of misfortunes on the global stage over the years, British Virgin Islands Kyron McMaster finally secured her first global medal when he claimed silver in the men’s 400 metres hurdles final on Wednesday’s fifth day of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

McMaster a two-time Commonwealth Games champion, was always favoured to right the wrongs on this occasion, and that he did in, making no mistakes at the National Athletic Stadium in the Central European country.

He clocked 47.34s, behind Norway’s stalwart Karsten Warholm (46.89s), who added the World Championships crown to his Olympic title, while American Rai Benjamin (47.56s) was third.

Jamaica’s 19-year-old Roshawn Clarke (48.07s) ran an impressive race to finish fourth behind the proverbial big guns. In fact, he finished ahead of now dethroned champion Alison Dos Santos (48.10s) of Brazil.

Running from lanes five and eight respectively, the 26-year-old McMaster and Clarke went out well, keeping pace with Dos Santos for the first 200m.

However, when Warholm and Benjamin made their move, Clarke had no response to their injection, while McMaster was seemingly fading into bronze, but produced a late rally to get by the American in the closing stages to win the battle for second.

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Kyron McMaster and Roshawn Clarke both advanced to the final of the men’s 400m hurdles on day three of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Monday.

McMaster ran a composed 47.72 to win the first semi-final ahead of Estonia’s Rasmus Magi (48.30) and the USA’s CJ Allen (48.30). Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Jaheel Hyde, had a blistering first half of the race before fading in the final 200m to finish fourth in 48.49.

Rai Benjamin (47.24) and defending champion Alison Dos Santos (47.38) were comfortably the top two finishers in the second semi-final. France’s Ludvy Vaillant finished third in 48.48, knocking Hyde out of one of the non-automatic qualifying spots.

The third semi-final saw World Record holder Karsten Warholm look awesome in running 47.08 to win ahead of Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke and USA’s Trevor Bassitt.

Clarke’s time in second was 47.34, a new national record and world junior record while Bassitt’s time of 47.38 in third was also good enough to take him to the final.

The final is scheduled for Wednesday at 2:50pm Jamaica time.

Kyron McMasters of the British Virgin Islands as well as Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke and Jaheel Hyde advanced to the semi-final round of the 400m hurdles during the opening session of the second day of action at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday.

McMaster, the two-time Commonwealth Games champion, won the second of the five heats in 48.47 ahead of Estonia’s Rasmus Magi (48.58) and the USA’s Trevor Bassit, who clocked in at 48.74. Kenya’s Wiseman Were Mukhobe was the final automatic qualifier from the heat when he finished fourth in 49.10.

Clarke, 19, who equaled the World U20 record of 47.85 at Jamaican national championships in July, was the fastest of the Caribbean men to advance, clocking 48.39 while finishing third in Heat 4 of the preliminary round.

The heat was won by Germany’s Joshua Abuaku in 48.47 ahead of Estonia’s Rasmus Magi (48.58) and the USA’s Trevor Bassit, who clocked in at 48.74. Nigeria’s Ezekiel Nathaniel was fourth in a personal best of 48.47.

Hyde finished second in his heat, the last of the five, in 48.63. Rai Benjamin of the USA won the heat in 48.35 with Japan’s Kazuki Kurokawa third in 48.71, a season’s best. Costa Rica’s Gerald Drummond was the other automatic qualifier in 48.73.

Also through were medal favourites Karsten Warholm, the Olympic champion and world record holder and Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos, who clocked 48.76 and 48.12, respectively.

Olympic champion and world record-holder Karsten Warholm laid down a huge marker of his ambition to regain the 400m hurdles title at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest when he set a Diamond League record of 46.51 in Monaco on July 21.

The 27-year-old Norwegian said before his race that his experience at last year’s World Championships in Oregon, where he finished seventh after recovering from a hamstring injury incurred in his opening meeting of the season, has been a strong motivating factor this year.

"It was really nice to do this again – that 0.01 off the Diamond League record and also the track record," Warholm said after a performance that also bettered his own top world mark for 2023.

"This is a nice timing as the World Championships is just around the corner. Since I was injured last year, I enjoyed the racing more."

In his wake was Brazilian Alison dos Santos, who took over the world title he had won in 2017 and 2019, who clocked a season’s best of 47.66.

Dos Santos, who finished third in the Tokyo Olympic final, has had to recover from a serious injury early this year in the form of a torn meniscus in his right knee which required surgery.

At the time it appeared his season was over before it had started, but he returned to top class action at the Silesia Diamond League meeting on 16 July, where he finished third in the 400m in 44.73. And in his first race over the hurdles in Monaco the 23-year-old from Sao Paulo did enough to stir his World Championships ambitions.

"That was the perfect opportunity for me to come back to run,” he said. "Now I will get ready for Budapest, to be able to win my world title again."

But Warholm and Dos Santos are not the only ones with world gold in their sights, as Rai Benjamin is equally determined to make a breakthrough in Budapest.

The 26-year-old US athlete took silver behind Warholm at the Doha 2019 World Championships and bettered the Norwegian’s world record of 46.70 in the Tokyo Olympic final where he clocked 46.17 and took another silver as Warholm reached deeper to set the current world record of 45.94.

Last year, with Warholm still a way off full fitness following a hamstring strain after clearing the first hurdle of his first race of 2022 at the Rabat Diamond League meeting, Benjamin must have thought his chance had come to make a golden impression on his home track in Eugene, Oregon – but Dos Santos won with a South American record of 46.29, with the home runner clocking 46.89.

How close can the Brazilian get to his best form in the time available? At the moment his is only fifth fastest in this season’s list, with two other runners above him – Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands, the double Commonwealth champion and fourth-place finisher in Tokyo, who has clocked 47.26, and CJ Allen of the United States, who has set a personal best of 47.58.

Others likely to make their mark include France’s Ludvy Vaillant, who has run a personal best of 47.85 this season, as has Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke, and 31-year-old Rasmus Magi of Estonia, European silver medallist in 2014, who has run 48.04 this season.

Italy’s 24-year-old 2018 world U20 champion Alessandro Sibilio, a Tokyo Olympic Games finalist, is also one to look out for.

Teenage phenom Adaejah Hodge and two-time Commonwealth Games champion Kyron McMaster are among three athletes selected by the British Virgin Islands Athletics Association to compete at the 2023 World Athletics Championships set to get underway in Budapest, Hungary this coming weekend.

Sprinter Rikkoi Brathwaite is the other athlete set to represent the BVI at the championships where an estimated 2100 athletes from across the globe will go for gold and glory.

Hodge, who turned 17 in March, will be making her debut at the championships in the 200m where she will likely face the biggest tests of her fledgling career in the form of reigning world champion Shericka Jackson, world leader Gabby Thomas and St Lucia’s Julien Alfred.

McMaster is a two-time Commonwealth Games champion, who ran an incredibly fast national record of 47.08 to finish fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. His season-best time of 47.26 is ranked fourth in the world this year. He will take to the track to face the likes of World and Olympic champion Karsten Warholm, the world record holder, the USA’s Rai Benjamin and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, the 2022 world champion.

Brathwaite, who set a new national record of 10.09s in early August, gets things started for the BVI in the 100m on August 20, when he takes on reigning champion Fred Kerley, Noah Lyles, Ferdinand Omanyala and Zharnel Hughes in the blue-ribbon sprint.

Both Hodge and McMaster will begin competition on August 23.

Coach Ralston Henry and the physiotherapist Martin Wilson, a UK national with close ties to Team BVIs will accompany the athletes to Budapest.

Noted track coach Gary Evans has shared his belief that his athlete, Kyron McMaster, is ready to contend for a medal at the upcoming 2023 World Championships in Budapest. Coach Evans believes that with the right preparation and mindset, McMaster can even dip below the elusive 47-second barrier at the World Championships in Budapest next month.

Last Thursday, McMaster secured a significant victory in Slovakia, winning the 400m hurdles in a season's best time of 47.26 seconds. At the P-T-S Meeting, the British Virgin Islands star raced to victory ahead of David Kendziera the USA, who clocked in at 48.95 seconds with Dany Brandt of Switzerland taking third place with a season-best time of 49.25 seconds.

McMaster, a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, joined Evans’ group at the end of last season after spending the previous five years with Jamaican coach Lennox Graham, who is also the Assistant Coach at Clemson University.

Under Graham’s guidance, McMaster won two Commonwealth Games titles and was fourth at the Toyko Olympics in a lifetime best 47.08, a time that would have won the gold medal at every other Olympic Games except for 1992 when Kevin Young won in a then world record of 46.78 and in Tokyo where Karsten Warholm dropped a jaw-dropping 45.94 to win gold.

Two years on, Coach Evans believes the 26-year-old McMaster is now primed to achieve a new lifetime best and a place on the podium of a global championship.

Prior to McMaster’s season-best run in Slovakia, the BVI-born hurdler has been running 48s all season so his performance in Slovakia was somewhat surprising. Regarding McMaster's readiness and recent improvement, Coach Evans stated, "I do believe that he probably should have run 47 a little earlier. But the thing is sometimes when you get a kid from a new coach he has to get used to the program and then you do things a little differently."

In Evans’ training group McMaster trains with the likes of Steven Gardiner, an Olympic and World Champion, Matthew Hudson-Smith, a World Championship bronze medallist as well as Michael Cherry, a 400m standout. Working with them has helped McMaster get settled and improve. He just now needs to focus on the task at hand.

"Kyron studies hard, studies very, very hard and I told him, sometimes you're doing too much studying. You're trying to do my job, the agent's job. I just need you to run," the veteran coach said.

Speaking about the training plan to get McMaster to this stage before the World Championships, Coach Evans explained, "We worked on what we had to work on the track and when we step out on the track, just run... know that I got to run 400 metres but I got 10 sticks. That's one of the 10 items that's going to interrupt me and that's how we look at it now."

In Budapest, McMaster will face Warholm, American champion Rai Benjamin and the world champion, Alison dos Santos, all of whom have run 46 seconds for the 400m hurdles. For McMaster to get onto the podium, he has to be capable to dipping below 47 seconds.

Evans believes he is ready to do just that.

“[I] already told him to get ready to get a new tattoo (of his new personal best). I have a few goals when I'm coaching; two goals, we are going to win a medal and when we step on that track at the end of the season, we going to know we ran our PB."

Regarding McMaster's competitors, Coach Evans noted, "You got the big three; you got Santos back, you got Warholm, and you got Rai Benjamin, somebody's going to choke, somebody's going to make a mistake.

“Somebody's going to take a step back. One of them hurdlers is going to step back and do a 47. You got to be ready to say, ‘Okay, I need to make sure I step forward. It's like I told Matthew Hudson Smith last year when Stevie (Gardiner) stepped out the picture. Matthew Hudson, this is your time to go get your medal.”

Coach Evans further expressed his confidence in McMaster's potential to succeed, saying, "I think we got a good game plan that we're going come up with when we get there. Kyron, it's your time to step in the picture... You got to stay in front of them... Your foot on the gas. You got to be on the gas now."

McMaster races next at the Eddie Murphy Classic in Memphis, Tennessee on August 4. It will be his final race before departing for his medal hunt in Budapest.

“My objective is for him to run in Memphis where it'll be a great. It'll be a great field. You know CJ Allen that ran 47.8 and two other guys. A lot of people are going to use that Memphis race. For our people, that's their last race and then they're going across [to Budapest],” Evans concluded.

Commonwealth champion Kyron McMaster opened his season with a 48.73 effort for victory in the 400m hurdles at the 2023 LSU Alumni Gold at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge on Saturday.

The British Virgin Islands ran his fastest season opener since 2021 to win ahead of Texas A&M’s Bryce McCray (50.29) and Florida State’s James Rivera (50.37).

The time puts McMaster fourth on the current world list behind Rai Benjamin (47.74), Caleb Dean (48.47) and Chris Robinson (48.66).

Texas A&M senior Lamara Distin opened her 2023 outdoor season with an impressive 1.95m effort to win the Women’s high jump.

The Commonwealth champion, who also won her second consecutive NCAA Indoor title in March, won ahead of Minnesota’s Nyalaam Jok (1.80m) and LSU’s Morgan Smalls (1.75m).

Distin, the Jamaican record holder with 1.97m, cleared 1.95 on her third attempt before failing three times to clear 2.00m.

Puma’s Charokee Young and Andrenette Knight were second and third in the Women’s 400m in 51.43 and 52.20, respectively, behind Mackenzie Dunmore of Empire Athletics (50.35).

Kyron McMaster and Shian Salmon took the respective 400m hurdles titles on the final day of the NACAC Championships in The Bahamas on Sunday.

Olympic Champion Hansle Parchment safely advanced to the final of the Men’s 110m hurdles at the Commonwealth games in Birmingham on Tuesday.

Parchment, who made it to the final of the event at the World Championships in Eugene before being unable to run after picking up a hamstring injury in the warm-up, ran a composed race to win heat one in 13.33 ahead of teammate Orlando Bennett (13.40).

Barbadian World Championship finalist Shane Brathwaite will also be in the final after finishing fourth in 13.42 and advancing as a fastest loser.

The fastest qualifier for the final came from heat two as Jamaican World Championship semi-finalist Rasheed Broadbell stormed to a season’s best 13.16 to win.

World Championship finalist Jaheel Hyde of Jamaica advanced to the final of the Men’s 400m hurdles alongside Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands. The pair finished first and second in heat two in 49.60 and 49.78, respectively.

2020 Olympic Champion Hansle Parchment ran 13.17 to advance to the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene on Saturday.

Parchment’s time was second fastest in qualifying behind American defending World Champion Grant Holloway’s 13.14.

Also advancing to the semi-finals were Jamaicans Rasheed Broadbell (13.36) and Orlando Bennett (13.55) as well as Barbados’ Shane Brathwaite (13.47).

The Men’s 400m hurdles saw four Caribbean athletes progress to the semi-finals.

Jamaica’s Kemar Mowatt ran 49.44 to finish second in his heat behind Olympic bronze medallist and 2022 world leader Alison Dos Santos of Brazil (49.41).

Mowatt’s Jamaican teammate Jaheel Hyde finished third in his heat in 50.03 behind Norewgian Olympic Champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm (49.34) and Belgium’s Julien Watrin (49.83).

Jamaica's Shawn Rowe finished sixth in heat four but his time of 49.51 was good enough to see him advance.

Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands also advanced safely after a 49.98 effort for fourth in his heat behind the USA’s Khalifah Rosser (48.62), Ramsey Angela of the Netherlands (49.62) and Sweden’s Carl Bengstrom (49.64). American Olympic silver medallist Rai Benjamin ran 49.06 to in his heat and also safely advance.

In the field, Shanieka Ricketts, Kimberley Williams and Ackelia Smith all advanced to the final of the Women’s triple jump.

Ricketts jumped 14.45m to advance with the fifth furthest jump in qualifying while Smith was eighth furthest with a personal best 14.36m. Williams was the 12^th furthest jumper in qualifying with 14.27m.

Ana Lucia Jose Tima of the Dominican Republic had the third farthest jump in qualifying with a new national record 14.52m while Dominica’s Thea Lafond (14.39m) and Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez (14.30m) will also be in Monday’s final. Venezuelan world record holder Yulimar Rojas led all qualifiers with 14.73m.

Jamaicans Lamara Distin and Kimberly Williamson both jumped 1.90m to advance to the final of the Women’s high jump.

Anderson Peters set a new meet record in the javelin while there were podium places for Rushell Clayton and Kyron McMaster at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, Sweden on Thursday.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce clocked a season-best 10.84 to record her first win over 100m at the Diamond League meeting in Doha today.

Caribbean athletes Kimberly Williams, Kyron McMaster, Danniel Thomas-Dodd and Briana Williams all delivered encouraging performances at the USATF Golden Games at the Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, California on Sunday, but all the buzz was once again around a young American woman who ran 10.7 twice on the day.

The 21-year-old American ran 10.74 in the preliminary round of the 100m and then followed up with 10.77 in the final despite a stiff enough headwind of -1.2m/s. This is the third time in as many races this season that she has run under 10.8s.

Williams, who opened her 100m season with 11.29 in Oregon a week ago, clocked 11.15 for third in the final to follow up on her season-best 11.09 that she ran in the preliminaries for second in Richardson’s heat.

Javaine Oliver was third in 11.08.

McMaster broke his own British Virgin Islands national record of 47.54 when he clocked 47.50 for second place in the 400m hurdles won by Rai Benjamin in a world-leading 47.13. Alison Dos Santos, who finished third, also set a Brazilian national record of 47.68.

Jamaica’s Kemar Mowatt was fourth in a season-best 48.90.

Meanwhile, Kimberly Williams won the triple jump with 14.62m.

Thomas-Dodd threw 18.91m to finish second in the shot put won by the USA’s Maggie Ewen who threw a season-best 19.32. The USA’s Jessica Ramsay was third with her best effort of 18.58m. Two other Caribbean athletes finished in the top 10. Jamaica’s Lloydrica Cameron produced a personal best throw of 18.33m for sixth place while Trinidad and Tobago’s Portious Warren uncorked a 17.83m effort for eighth.

The 100m hurdles was keenly a contested race but world-record holder Kendra Harrison proved to be too much for the field running a season-best 12.48 for the victory. In her wake was Cindy Semper who ran a personal best 12.53 for second place. Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan clocked 12.61 for third, the same time as Devynne Charlton, who established a new Bahamas national record.

A couple of Trinidadian’s picked up third-place finishes in their respective events. Deon Lendore ran a season-best 45.04 in the 400m won by the USA’s Michael Norman in 44.40. Michael Cherry ran 44.86 for second place.

Meanwhile, Jereem Richards ran a season-best 20.20 to finish behind Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek, who ran 19.90 and 19.94 for first and second, respectively.

Gabby Thomas won the 200m in a season-best 22.12 over Allyson Felix who opened with a fast 22.26 for second place. Lynna Irby was third in 22.37.