The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Team Bahamas began competition yesterday at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, and produced a new national record on day one.

Antoine Andrews highlighted the performances for Team Bahamas with a new national record in the 110m hurdles yesterday at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium.

Andrews won heat three in the new record setting time of 13.36 seconds. His time surpassed the mark of 13.38 set by Shamar Sands in 2009 and the junior national record of 13.67 set by Sands in 2002.

Christos Panagiotis- Roumtsios of Greece finished second to Andrews in heat three in 13.82 and Malik Mixon of the United States was third in 14.10. Andrews enters today’s semi-final as the second fastest qualifier in the 12-man field, just behind Matthew Sophia of the Netherlands who won heat one in a world leading U20 time of 13.10.

The semi-finals take place this afternoon at 4:10pm local time.

In his last appearance at the World U20 Championships in 2021 in Nairobi, Kenya, Andrews ran 14.08 to finish no.23 overall in the field.

Also on the track, Wanya McCoy and Zachary Evans failed to advance out of the opening round of the men’s 100 metres. Evans finished fourth in heat four in a time of 10.63.

Sadray Davidson of Jamaica took first in 10.25, Hiroto Fujiwara of Japan was second in 10.41 as automatic qualifiers and Carlos Angulo of Colombia advanced as one of the next fastest qualifiers in 10.45. McCoy ran 10.67 to finish sixth in heat two.

The top three finishers in the heat - Benjamin Richardson of South Africa (10.33), Reynaldo Espinosa of Cuba (10.41), and Nazzio John of Grenada (10.47) eventually advanced to the semifinal.

Letsile Tebogo advanced as the fastest qualifier in the field with a time of 10.00, followed by Mud Azeem Fahmi of Malaysia in a new U20 National Record time of 10.09, and Puripol Boonson of Thailand finished in 10.20.

Competition continues today with Javonya Valcourt in the women’s 400 metres and the duo of Paige Archer and Shatalya Dorsett in the 100 metres.

Corrington Maycock is the head coach of the 11-member team that competes through August 6.

“We have a strong team with very disciplined athletes,” Maycock said when the team was named.

“My hopes is that each and every athlete participates for personal records. “They all competed at a high level all season, now it’s time to execute.

Approximately 141 countries are competing, featuring 1,517 athletes in 24 modalities for men, 24 for women and one mixed - the 4 x 400 metre relay.