Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

Jamaica's Keiron Stewart (left) dips at the finish line in the men's 110m hurdles, on yesterday's final day of the 12th IAAF World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. - Photo by Anthony Foster

BYDGOSZCZ, Poland:

Keiron Stewart, on yesterday's final day, secured a bronze as Jamaica ended the 12th World Junior Championships with six medals.

Jamaica's one gold, four silver and one bronze placed them ninth on the medal's table, but second in the North America, Central America and Caribbean Area (NACACA), only behind regional powerhouse United States.

Overall, United States topped the medal's table with 17 medals (11G, 4S, 2B), followed by Germany (6G, 1S, 3B), Kenya (4G, 5S, 2B), Russia (4G, 3S), Ethiopia (2G, 3S, 5B), Ukraine (2G, 1S, 1B), France (2G), Romania (2G) and Jamaica.

Eighth place

In terms of points, Jamaica (57) were eighth in the tables behind NACACA teams USA (174) and Cuba (59 points), seventh.

In the men's 110m hurdles, Stewart, who struggled early in the race, fought gallantly to snatch the bronze medal in 13.51 seconds, the same time as Saudi Arabia's Sami Ahmed Al-Haydar who placed fourth.

"I hit a few hurdles down the line and lost the momentum going through," said Stewart.

"The execution was pretty good, but only the last three hurdles threw me off," he added.

Happy with medal

However, he is happy with his bronze.

"Mentally I was prepared for anything, rain, cold, I just came out to do my best. (It's the) World Junior final, any medal is good," he said.

Russian Konstantin Shabanov won the event in a world junior-leading 13.27 seconds, while American Booker Nunley (13.45) took second.

In the other final contested by Jamaica on yesterday's final day - the men's 4x400m relay - saw them finishing fourth.

The quartet of Kevin Williams, Nickel Ashmeade, Rolando Berch and Akino Ming finished in a season-best 3:08.58, well behind winners United States (3:03.86), Great Britain (3:05.82) and Germany (3:06.47).
400m at trials, was missing in the 4x400m relay; while Kayon Robinson fractured her left tibia in the 1600m relay.

Also Ramone McKenzie, who suffered a hairline fracture at Penn Relay in April, said he was 'race rusty' as his training schedule was affected.

"I am sure if we had the group together working as a unit prior to coming here, we would have seen some of those injuries before we left Jamaica and then we would not have had so many problems over here," said Holness.

The fit athletes

Despite that, however, Holness said the fit athletes gave a good account of themselves.

Jamaica won six medals - one gold, four silver and a bronze - falling short of the 2006 medal haul of eight medals, which included two gold.

"Realistically, when we looked at the level of the Championships, we are happy with the amount of medals," he said.

"We would have loved to get some more medals, but when you look at the level of competition, and the events in which we were hoping to get a medal, you would realise the other countries have stepped up, not just a notch, but (have) gone far ahead," added Holness.

Holness continued: "There is some work that we have to do, not individually, but as a country, as a team, we need do work and get our group together ... early enough to have them working together," he advised for the future.