The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

SEVERAL personal bests and one finalist highlighted the first day of competition for the Bahamas at the 2015 IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia.

The lone field athlete of Team Bahamas, Serena Brown successfully advanced through the qualification rounds of the girls discus on day one. In the final, she finished 11th with a throw of 43.93 metres.

In group A of the qualification round, Brown tossed a personal best of 44.96 metres on her third attempt to finish sixth in the group. She advanced to the final ranked No.11 in the 12-member field.

Up first on the track was Javan Martin and Perez Knowles competing in the heats of the boy’ 100m. Martin advanced to the semi-finals but finished fifth in his heat in a time of 10.69 and was unable to advance. He opened with a third place finish in heat three and finished with an automatic qualifying time of 10.61.

Knowles finished sixth in heat one in a time of 11.10 and failed to advance. He finished 36th overall.

Charisma Taylor and Sasha Wells followed in the heats of the 100m hurdles. Taylor ran a personal best time of 14.06 in heat one and was just able to advance to the semi-finals as the last of the 24 qualifiers. Alexis Duncan of the United States produced a world youth leading time of 13.13 in the heat, which produced seven qualifiers. Wells ran a time of 14.22, finished seventh in heat four and was No.29 in the field.

Seven of the top 10 qualifiers ran personal best times to advance.

The morning session for Team Bahamas concluded with the 400m heats. Dreshanae Rolle turned in a new personal best of 55.51 and finished fifth in heat four. D’Nia Freeman finished sixth in heat six in a time of 57.34. Neither was able to advance to the semi-finals.

In the afternoon session, Branson Rolle competed in the boys’ 400m hurdles heats where he finished sixth in heat four with a time of 55.70.

Today, Brianne Bethel and Blayre Catalyn are slated to take to the track first for Team Bahamas with heats in the girls’ 100m at 11:30am. Bethel is ranked at No.17 on the IAAF top list with a time of 11.63, turned in at the CARIFTA championships in St Kitts.

Tavonte Mott is also set to compete in the boys’ 110m hurdles at 1:50pm. Semi-finals and finals in the afternoon session will include the girls’ 100m hurdles, 100m, 400m and boys’ 400m hurdles.