Clay­ton Clarke

Machel Ce­de­nio was T&T's main hope for a medal when he lined up in the Boys 400m fi­nal on the third day of ac­tion at the sev­enth IAAF World Youth Track and Field Cham­pi­onships at the Sta­di­um Lille-Metro­pole in Lille, France yes­ter­day. How­ev­er, the Point Fortin ath­lete missed out a medal, cross­ing the line in fourth, just 0.22 sec­onds away from a the bronze medal. The South­ern Acad­e­my stu­dent was still re­ward­ed with a per­son­al best and na­tion­al youth record of 46.89, an im­prove­ment of the 46.96 he set at the Quan­tum Clas­sic in May. The dou­ble Carif­ta cham­pi­on start­ed in lane two and was beat­en by Amer­i­can Ar­man Hall (46.01), Kenya's Al­phas Kishoyian (46.58) and Pa­tryk Dobek of Poland (46.67). Ce­de­nio fin­ished ahead of Takuky Fuku­na­ga of Japan (47.16), Ba­hami­an An­dre Wells (47.22) and Cana­da's Bren­don Re­stall (47.34).

Ce­de­nio matched the T&T best fin­ish in the event. Jamil James was al­so fourth in the 2003 fi­nals in Sher­brooke, Cana­da. Ba­hami­an Shau­nae Miller took the Girls 400m ti­tle in 51.84 sec­onds to add the World Youth ti­tle to her 2010 World Ju­nior gold. Jereem Richards won his heat in the Boys 200m pre­lim­i­nar­ies. Richards took heat five in 21.85 sec­onds, to book his spot in to­day's semi­fi­nals set for 10.40 am. The 2011 Carif­ta boys Un­der-20 4x400m re­lay sil­ver medal­list will start in the third heat and will run from lane five. Richards, an­oth­er Quan­tum ath­lete, will be aim­ing to fin­ish in the top two to be cer­tain of a place in the fi­nal set for to­mor­row.

Shaunna Downey and Rueben Wal­ters were al­so in ac­tion. Downey of Burn­ley Ath­let­ic Club was well be­low her best in the Girls dis­cus qual­i­fy­ing round as she could on­ly man­aged 17th in the Group A with 35.59m, well be­low the 48.50m stan­dard to be guar­an­teed a spot in the fi­nal. Wal­ters ran a life­time best of 14.01 in the Boys 110m hur­dles semi­fi­nals but his time was on­ly good enough for fourth in heat three and 11th over­all. The top eight ad­vance to the fi­nal which was al­so to be con­test­ed yes­ter­day. On the penul­ti­mate day of com­pe­ti­tion, to­day, the boys med­ley team of Wal­ters, Richard, Ce­de­nio and Theon Lewis will line up in lane two in the fourth and fi­nal heat card­ed for 6 am. The quar­tet will be seek­ing to win the heat to be as­sured a spot in to­mor­row's fi­nal.

Re­sults

Boys 400m fi­nals

1 Ar­man Hall USA 46.01

2 Al­phas Kishoyian Kenya 46.58

3 Pa­tryk Dobek Poland 46.67

4 Machel Ce­de­nio T&T 46.89 (NYR)

Boys 200m Pre­lim­i­nar­ies

Heat 5

1 Jereem Richards T&T 21.85

Boys 110m Hur­dles Semi­fi­nals

1 Rueben Wal­ters T&T 14.01 (PB)

Girls Dis­cus Qual­i­fy­ing

Group A

17 Shaunna Downey T&T 35.59m

Day Four Sched­ule

Boys Med­ley Re­lay Pre­lim­i­nar­ies

Heat 4 (6 am)

Lane 2 (T&T)

Boys 200m Semi­fi­nals

Heat 3 (10.54 am)

Lane 4 Jereem Richards (T&T)