World U-20 | Clayton, Cole progress to women’s 100 metres final

Jamaica’s Tina Clayton easily won her women’s 100 metres semi-finals at the World Under-20 Championships at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium in Cali, Colombia on Wednesday, to advance to the final.

Clayton was in heat two of the semi-finals as Jamaica’s other representative in the event, Serena Cole, running in heat three, finished second to also progress to the final, which has been pushed back from Wednesday because of rain in Colombia. This forced the organisers to adjust the schedule.

In semi-finals heat two, Clayton just maintained her lead for most of the race as she slightly increased her steps at different stages, when joined by N’Ketia Seedo of the Netherlands. These two were well ahead of the other contestants.

Clayton, with the fastest age-group time of the year of 10.96 seconds done at the National Championships in June, cruised to 11.17 with Seedo doing 11.26 to claim the second automatic qualifying spot from that semi-final.

Meanwhile, in semi-finals heat three, Serena Cole battled with Tima Seikeseye Godbless of Nigeria for a major part of the race but had to settle for the minor placing, as Godbless won in 11.20 seconds with Cole doing 11.29 for the second automatic qualifying spot that advanced to the final. Mia Brahe-Pedersen of the United States of America (USA) was third in 11.36 seconds and qualified for the final on time.

Shawnti Jackson of the USA with a personal best time of 11.16 seconds, will enter the final with the fastest time with Clayton being the second fastest. Godbless’ time was the next best.

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