JAMAICA increased its medal tally by two on the third day of competition at the World Youth Championships in Lille, France as Manchester High school’s jumper, Chanice Porter and Vere Technical’s quarter miler Olivia James picked up bronze medals in their respective events.  The country has overall five medals, two gold and three bronze, going into Saturday's fourth and penultimate day of competition.  It was the experienced Porter who gave the country its first medal of the day as she cleared the high jump bar at 1.82 metres to finish third. It was a world leading height for winner Ligua Grozay of Romania and second place finisher Iryna Herashcherko of Ukraine as they both cleared the bar at 1.87 metres.

In one of the most anticipated finals of the Championships, the Girl's 400 metres, Jamaica’s ChrisAnn Gordon was the favourite coming into the Championships with her World leading 51.62 seconds.  A battle royal was expected between the Jamaican and the Bahamian Shaunae Miller -  the World Junior champion in the event. Both athletes came into the final with sub 52 seconds performances following the semi-final round and Miller seemed determined to make up for her disappointment at the Carifta Games in Jamaica where she was disqualified for false starting. In the end it was the Bahamian athlete who came out victorious as she added another global title to her resume with a convincing win in a personal best of 51.84 seconds. It was a close finish for second and third as Christian Brennan (52.12) got the better of Jamaica’s Olivia James (51.14).  Grange, running a personal best, gave Jamaica its second medal of the day.  Gordon finished a disappointing seventh in 53.31 seconds.

In the other final involving Jamaican athletes on day three, both Omar McLeod and Tyler Mason produced personal bests in the Boy's 110 metres hurdles but finished out of the medals. Mcleod just missed out on a medal as the Manchester High school’s athlete had to settle for fourth in 13.61 seconds with Mason finishing sixth in 13.74 seconds. The event was won by Andries Van der Merwi in 13.41 seconds giving South Africa their first gold medal of the Championships.

Jamaica will not be represented in the Girl's 800 metres final as Simoya Campbell (2:15.22) and Marleena Eubanks (2:12.47) both failed to move forward as they both finished seventh in their respective semi-final heats.  Heptathlete Gleneive Grange is finding the going very tough in the Girl's Heptathlon as after three of the seven events she has tallied a modest 1404 points putting her in 33rd place out of 34, despite posting personal bests in all three events. In the 100 metres hurdles she clocked 16.38 seconds, threw 12.11 metres in the shot put and clocked 25.94 seconds in the 200 metres. She will be hoping to improve on her placing when she competes in the final four events on Saturday.

There was first round action in the Girl's and Boy's 200 metres with all four Jamaicans advancing to the semi-Final rounds which will take place on Saturday.  World leader Shericka Jackson finished second in her heat of the Girl's event in 24.08 seconds while Kadisha Dallas was fourth in her heat in 25.09 seconds advancing as one of the best losers.

Following his Gold medal run in the Boy's 100 metres, Odail Todd is hoping for a double win at the Championships.  He won his heat in the Boy's 200 metres in 21.60 seconds and his teammate, Odean Skeen, also won his heat in 21.75 seconds.

Omar McLeod will be hoping for a better performance on Saturday in the Boy's 400 metres hurdles final, following his fourth place finish in the 110 metres hurdles. He will line up in the event at 11.00 a.m. Jamaican time and will run out of lane 2.  Before this however, in the morning session, Chanice Porter will compete in the qualifying round of the Girl's long jump while both male and female teams will take the track in first round action of the medley relays.

Contributed by Raymond Graham