Reports from the IAAF

July 16

100m Heats
Trinidad’s Darrell Brown may not have been the fastest qualifier in the first round heats for the men’s 100 metres, but no-one made winning look easier.  The 18-year old stormed away from the rest of the field with his head down and could have been out for a training run he made it look so relaxed.  Brown crossed the line in 10.49, 25 hundredths ahead of Japan’s Igumi Ryosuke (10.74) into a head wind of 0.1 m’s.

The distinction of being the fastest qualifier in the heats went to the winner of the first heat, Christian Brendan of Antigua, with his time of 10.36 seconds (0.7 m/s).

Another relaxed winner was Brown's compatriot Mark Burns, who won the last heat of the series in 10.45 (1.7 m/s), well clear of second-placed Marius Broening of Germany, who clocked 10.54.

The first three of each heat and the five fastest losers go through to the quarter finals.
 

100m Quarterfinals
This time around it was Darrell Brown who recorded the fastest time in the men’s 100 metre quarter finals.  Running in the final race of the series, the event favourite crossed the line in 10.17 seconds, a world leading junior mark for the year.

Not far behind in time, but running in the first round race, was Brendan Christian from Antigua, who had recorded the fastest time in the first heats this morning.  This afternoon, Christian recorded a time of 10.23 seconds.

The remaining heats were won by Willie Hordge (USA) with 10.25 and Marc Burns from Trinidad and Tobago with 10.32.

Winston Hutton kept Jamaica’s hopes high, going through to the semis with his third place in the third round and a time of 10.30, fifth fastest of the quarter finals.

July 17

100m Semifinals
Trinidad and Tobago won both of the semi final heats here this afternoon, with Marc Burns and Darrell Brown both showing a clean pair of heels to the rest of the field in a foretaste of what can be expected in this evening’s final.

Out of the blocks well, Burns powered immediately into the lead, despite an impressive start by Nigeria’s Tamunosiki Atorudibo. Meanwhile, the USA’s Willie Hordge got off to a poor start but recovered to come back into the running in the final stages.

But the race was all Marc Burns’ as he ran well clear of the field and visibly slowed to the line in a new personal best of 10.18 seconds to Atorudibo’s 10.32. Hordge came back well in the end to take third place in the heat in 10.35, with the final qualifying slot going to Antigua’s Brendan Christian.

Once again in his heat, Darrel Brown was uncontested. Despite being one of the slower starters of the heat, the rising sprint star from Trinidad and Tobago picked up well and moved into the lead by the halfway point. Ten metres to the finish Brown was already powering down as the other runners strove to catch him and he crossed the line in 10.21.

Allen Rashaad of the USA came in second in 10.37, with local favourite Winston Hutton third in 10.45 just ahead of the other qualifier in this second heat Saad Faraj Al-Shahwani (QAT) in 10.46.
 

100m Final
It was a T and T double in the men’s blue riband event, as Trinidad and Tobago’s Darrel Brown and Marc Burns stole all the limelight here this evening.

It was less of race than a downright duel between the two as they left the other participants behind them and battled for the lead.

However, Darrell was not ready to give up his winning streak and finally edged Burns at the line with a finishing time of 10.09 secs, a new World Junior Championships record, despite the 0.6 m/s headwind. Burns was timed through the finish at 10.18 – a personal best –ahead of the USA’s Willie Hordge in 10.36 seconds
 

July 18

200m Heats
His nickname is “thunderbolt” here in Jamaica and he runs like greased lighting.

Still just 15 years old, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt could well be on his way to becoming the youngest gold medallist in the history of the World Junior Championships, in all events one of the youngest medallists.

Although his winning time in the third heat (20.58) was a personal best, Bolt made it look as though he had a lot more in his legs if he were pushed to his limits.

Coming into the straight he was so far in the lead that he started to power down fifty metres out from the finish and still finished 47 hundredths ahead of second-placed Sebastian Ernst from Germany. Of course the conditions could hardly have been better: 30 degrees and a nice 1.4 m/s tail wind helping things along and countering a little the crushing humidity (62%).

Similar conditions, though a little less wind also pushed the next fastest winners, Germany’s Till Helmke (who ran a 20.97 pb to win heat 6) and Canada’s Christopher Tyler , the winner of heat 3 in 21.03. Also running in heat three but a lot further back, Ahmed Mohammed Ali set an Egyptian junior record of 21.83.

The most closely contested heat was heat 2, where Grafton Ifil of the Bahamas just edged Rubin Williams of the USA to win in 21.05 to 21.06.

Although the pace was a little slower, in heat 5, Brazil’s Bruno Nascimento Pacheco was another relaxed winner in 21.19, ahead of Pawel Ptak of Poland with 21.58. Once again, Pacheco already had the race sewn up as he powered around the bend and into the straight, dropping the revs a good thirty metres out to cruise across the line.

In the first heat, Brendan Christian of Antigua, the winner, set a new national junior record of 21.09, ahead of Roman Smirnov (RUS) with 21.18. Fourth placed Ivor-Tit Jurisic from Croatia also set a national junior record with his time of 21.43.
 

July 19

200m Semifinals
They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. Well, the Jamaican thunderbolt struck again this morning, repeating with nonchalance his domination of the men’s 200 metres.

Usain Bolt got up slow out of the blocks and pulled away from the other runners to win his heat of the men’s 200 metre semi-finals in an amazing 20.85 seconds. Amazing, because the youngster was once again powering down 50 metre sout from the finish and looking as though he was debating whether he should turn around and run the rest of the race backwards, so as to better see how far behind him the other runners were. Amazing, also, because he ran this time into a 2.5 m/s headwind, to finish nearly 20 hundredths of a second ahead of Antigua’s Brendan Christian in second place with 21.04. Bruno Pacheco from Brazil came in third, managing to make the final as one of the next fastest finishers with his time of 21.16.

In heat one, Grafton Ifil of the Bahamas won his race with 21.02 into a 1.1 m/s headwind, narrowly beating Rubin Williams (USA), who took second place with 21.07 and Sebastian Ernst of German with 21.09 qualifying also in third place.

The third heat was the slowest, as the runners had to battle with a 4.1 m/s headwind, but Wes Felix still managed to post a creditable 21.50 in first place, ahead of Till Hemke (GER), with 21.65.
 

200m Final
Jamaica’s young sprint phenomenon Usain Bolt fulfilled all the expectations of the crowd in the National Stadium this evening, as he became the youngest Gold Medallist in the history of the IAAF World Junior Championships. With 33 days to go to his 16th birthday, the youngster dominated an older and more experienced field to win the 200 metres final in 20.61 seconds.

Running just as confidently and smoothly as he had in the heats and the semi-final, Bolt came out of the blocks well and stayed ahead of the field to the finish line.

Bolt has a style that is almost reminiscent of Marion Jones, going along with his head down on his shoulders and never really giving the impression that he is opening up fully, even when running impressively fast.

This evening, the going was easier than in the semi-final heat this morning, with a 0.9 m/s tailwind aiding the athletes in the evening heat – the temperature has hovered around 30 degrees throughout today’s competition.

The only contender to come close to Bolt was Antigua’s Brendan Christian, who clocked 20.74 to take the silver medal, with Wes Felix from the USA running a new personal best of 20.82 for the bronze.

Speaking this afternoon, Canada’s Donovan Bailey summed it all up when he said just how astounding he found Bolt to be: “he could be running on the Grand Prix circuit today and the kid is just 15. He is so powerful, it is unbelievable the potential that he has.”
 

July 20

4x100m Heats
Seven teams lined up at the start of the first heat, but it was really a two horse race – or rather a Caribbean challenge, with two of the favourites for gold facing off in a preview of what could be the final of tomorrow.

With Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in the race and Usain Bolt and Darrel Brown running anchor for those teams, there had to be fireworks and there were.

Trinidad and Tobago were slightly prejudiced at the start, as Chevon Simpson running the first leg stumbled momentarily coming off the blocks, but he recovered well and made a smooth handover to Marc Burns. In the Jamaican camp, It was Winston Hutton handing over to Orio Nicely.

The two teams were level as the batons changed hands and progressed up the track to hand over to Kevon Holder for Trinidad and Yhann Plummer for Jamaica, Nicely seemed to have lost a couple of strides on Burns, but once Plummer had the baton he streaked off catching Holder and was the first to pass on the baton to anchor Usain Bolt.

Trinidad and Tobago also exchanged smoothly and Darrel Brown was away in hot pursuit. But Bolt had a metre’s advantage and was not going to relinquish that, crossing the line in a world leading 39.38 seconds, with Trindad finishing just behind in a national junior record time of 39.50.

Also finishing well behind Brown was France’s Idrissa M’Barke, anchoring a French squad of Cyril Bapte, David Alerte and Cedrick Audel to qualification as one of the next fastest finishers with a time of 39.93.

In fourth Pplace, Italy also qualified with Lorenzo La Naia, Alessandro Rocco, Andrew Howe Besozzi and Sergio Riva timed at 40.16.

The World Leading Junior time was not to stand for long however.

Lining up for heat two were the United States team of Ashton Collins, Wes Felix, Ivory Williams and Willie Hordge and against them Brazil – Elieezer De Almeida, Bruno de Alcantara Goes, Jorge Celio Sena and Bruno Nacimento Pacheco -, Germany –Marius Broening Sebastian Ernst, David Dylus and Till Helmke-, and Japan – Ryosuke Igumi, Shinji Takahira, Yusuke Nii and Kazuteru Matsumoto.

The Japanese were off to the fastest start and at the first handover, Takahira was away two strides before Wes Felix for the USA and Bruno Goes for Brazil.

Takahira held the lead to the next exchange zone, but then Williams was away, with Nii and Dylus in hot pursuit.

For the final exchange, Williams was now well in advance of Sena and Nii, made a clean handover to Hordge and Hordge hit the gas and was off down the finishing straight with a clear lead over Pacheco, now in second position and Matsumoto.

Maintaining his speed through the finish, Hordge was timed at a new world junior leading time of 39.18, with Brazil second in 39.75 and Japan just holding off the strong German finish to take third in 39.85. Both Japan and Germany (39.85) also go through to the final.
 

July 21

4x100m Final
After a magnificent gold for the women’s 4 x100 relay team, the capacity crowd filling the National Stadium were all heated up for a repeat victory in the men’s event, but this was not to be.

Despite the incredible power of the Island’s Usain Bolt running anchor,  the Jamaican was unable to catch Willie Hordge running the American anchor leg who profited from a three metre advantage at the exchange to take the baton and head home, completing the race in a new World Junior Record time of 38.92 seconds.

Just behind him Bolt was being chased hard by Trinidad and Tobago’s young star Darrell Brown as Brown tried to make up for two poor exchanges by Burns and Holder that had cost the Trinidad team five metres at the final handover.

Brown almost did, but the young giant from Jamaica held the advantage, giving the hosts silver in a national junior record of 39.15 to Trinidad and Tobago’s own national junior record for bronze of 39.17, following on from the national record set in yesterday’s heats of 39.50.
 

Results
(finals only -- full results available at IAAF)

100 METRES

WJR: 10.06  Dwain Chambers     GBR Ljubljana   07/25/97
 CR: 10.12  Christian Malcolm  GBR Annecy      07/29/98
     10.12  Mark Lewis-Francis GBR Santiago    10/18/00
WJL: 10.17  Darrel Brown       TRI Kingston    07/16/02

Final (July 17)
(wind: -0.6 m/s)
1. Darrel Brown         Trinidad & Tobago 10.09  CR WJL NJR
2. Marc Burns           Trinidad & Tobago 10.18  PB
3. Willie Hordge        United States     10.36
4. Tamunosiki Atorudibo Nigeria           10.38
5. Rashaad Allen        United States     10.39
6. Brendan Christian    Antigua           10.43
7. Saad F. Al-Shahwani  Qatar             10.51
8. Winston Hutton       Jamaica           10.53

200 METRES

WJR: 20.13  Roy Martin         USA Indianapoli 06/16/85
 CR: 20.44  Christian Malcolm  GBR Annecy      08/01/98
WJL: 20.41  Jeremy Wariner     USA Lubbock     04/27/02

Final (July 19)
(wind: +0.9 m/s)
1. Usain Bolt           Jamaica           20.61
2. Brendan Christian    Antigua           20.74
3. Wes Felix            United States     20.82  PB
4. Rubin Williams       United States     20.90
5. Bruno N. Pacheco     Brazil            20.95
6. Sebastien Ernst      Germany           21.00
7. Till Helmke          Germany           21.10
   Grafton Ifill        Bahamas             DNF

4x100 METRES

WJR: 39.00  United States          Colorado Sp 07/18/83
            (N.Jessie-A.Franklin-S.Blalock-D.Mitchell)
 CR: 39.05  Great Britain          Santiago    10/22/00
            (T.Edgar-D.Grant-T.Benjamin-M.Lewis-Francis)  
WJL: 39.18  United States          Kingston    07/20/02

Final (July 21)
1. United States        38.92  WJR
   (A.Collins-W.Felix-I.Williams-W.Hordge)
2. Jamaica              39.15  NJR
   (W.Hutton-O.Nicely-Y.Plummer-U.Bolt)
3. Trinidad & Tobago    39.17  NJR
   (C.Simpson-M.Burns-K.Holder-D.Brown)
4. Brazil               39.76
5. Italy                39.86
6. Germany              40.00
7. Japan                40.05
8. France               40.14


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