...Cedenio dominates 400m heats
T&T’s two highly rated 4x100m relay teams will attempt to book a spot in tomorrow’s semifinals, at the IAAF World Junior Championships, in Eugene, Oregon, when they contest the women and men’s heats from 9.05 pm today.
The two relay heats will following individual performances from Shakiel Waithe and Akila Mc Shine, who will line-up in the preliminaries of the men’s javelin and the girls’ 100m hurdles.
McShine, whose personal best stands at 13.91 seconds will line up in heat five at approximately 2 pm. then at around 3.45 pm, Shackiel Waithe, whose season best of 72.75m (fifth best in the line-up) will attempt to qualify out of the preliminaries with the intention of attaining success similar to Keshorn Walcott, who won gold two years ago.
T&T’s men’s 4x100m relay team (Jonathan Farinha, John Mark Constantine, Holland Cabare, Micah Ballantyne, Akanni Hislop and Aaron Lewis), is expected to run its first heat just after 9.40 pm, following the girls’ attempt at the same distance. The girls’ .team includes Zakiya Denoon, Aaliyah Telesford, Kayelle Clarke, Mauricia Preito and Trishelle Leacock.
Successful teams will advance directly to the final carded for tomorrow.
Meanwhile, action on Wednesday night saw Jonathan Farinha, one of T&T’s best prospects at precious metal finish eighth from as many athletes in the Men’s 100m final. He clocked 10.47 seconds. American pair Kendal Williams and Trayvon Bromell took a top-two finish in 10.21 and 10.28 seconds, respectively. He returned to action in the 200m heats, yesterday afternoon where he placed 11th overall with a 21.11 mark.
The semifinals were carded for 9.40 pm. The final will run at 11.10 tonight.
T&T’s junior world leading 400m runner, Machel Cedenio, had a strong performance as he blistered in the heats to qualify easily for last night’s 400m semifinal. Cedenio clocked 45.90 seconds, while USA’s Tyler Brown and Alexander Sampao of Kenya ran 45.97 and 46.21 seconds as the second and third fastest qualifiers, respectively.
The men’s 400m final ran after press time last night. Ruebin Walters, who ran the seventh fastest time overall in the men’s 110m hurdles semifinals, also contested the final after press time. He ran 13.61 seconds in the semifinal, after running 13.76 in the heats.