GROSSETO, Italy, CMC:
JAMAICANS SONITA Sutherland and Sherene Pinnock provided the Caribbean with two more medals on the third day of the IAAF World Junior Championships yesterday.
Sutherland copped silver in the girls' flat 400 metres and Pinnock collected a bronze in the girls' 400 metres hurdles to follow up on compatriot Ronaldo Rose's bronze in the girls' 100 metres the previous day.
Natasha Hastings completed a sweep of the flat quarter-mile for the United States when she ran a lifetime best 52.04 seconds to win the girls' race.
Sutherland came off the bend with a narrow lead, but Hastings showed great acceleration over the last 100 metres to run away with the gold medal.
RACE FOR SILVER
The race for the silver medal was much closer, but Sutherland prevailed in the last 30 metres to deny American rival Ashlee Kidd by 0.04 in a time of 52.41 secs.
LaShawn Merritt had earlier lowered his world 400 metres leading time with an easy win in the boys' event in front of Sudan's Nagmeldin Abubakr and Obakeng Ngwigwa from Botswana.
Merritt improved his three-week-old time by 0.13 sec to 45.25 second with Abubakr in a photo-finish running 45.97 - the same as Ngwigwa, who set a national junior record.
Ekaterina Kostetskaya set a world junior leading mark for the year of 55.55 seconds to win the girls' 400 metre hurdles.
Showing great leaping form, she took control of the race over the last 200 metres, after Pinnock set a torrid pace over the first half.
Kostetskaya, the Russian winner of last year's European Junior title, outclassed Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic (57.44 seconds) with Pinnock close on her heels in a tight finish for a time of 57.54 seconds.
Kerron Clement, who switched allegiance from Trinidad & Tobago to the United States earlier this year, installed himself as the overwhelming favourite for the boys' 400 hurdles, after he clocked the fastest semi-final time of 49.01 seconds.
Jamaica's Markino Buckley finished last of seven in the first heat of the semi-finals with a time of 52.89 second.
Three Caribbean girls and one boy have qualified for the finals of the 200 metres, but they all face strong competition for medals today.
Jamaicans Nickesha Anderson and Anneisha McLaughlin won their respective heats in the semifinals to qualify for the final. Anderson clocked 23.57 seconds and McLaughlin ran 23.41 second.
Raging hot American favourite Shalonda Solomon had a workmanlike victory in the second of the three heats to clock a zippy 23.13 second that made her the fastest qualifier. T&T's Kelly-Ann Baptise finished runner up in 23.53 to also reach the final.
Grenada's Sherry Fletcher, the other Caribbean girl in the 200 qualifying, finished last (24.61 second) in heat three won by McLaughlin.
On the boys' side, Jamil James powered through in the last 100 metres to finish runner-up in 20.97 seconds behind South Africa's Julius Leigh in the second of three heats to reach the final.
Compatriot Marcus Duncan and Jamaican Nester Carter finished third (21.23secons) and fourth (21.24 second) respectively, but missed out on qualification with the first two of each heat and the two fastest losers moving forward.
The Bahamas' Mitchell Jacobi ran a personal season-best 21.41 seconds, but finished sixth in heat three that had a British 1-2 with Julian Thomas and Rikki Fifton out front.
Italy's Andrew Howe, the 19-year-old born in Los Angeles, is the favourite to complete a track and field double. Winner of the long jump gold medal on Wednesday, Howe was fastest in the 200 semi-finals with 20.72 second in heat one.
