PARIS – Bar­ba­di­an Sa­da Williams along with Ja­maicans Nick­isha Pryce, Stacey Ann Williams and Junelle Brom­field, led a strong Caribbean per­for­mance to ad­vance to the semi­fi­nals of the women’s 400 me­tres at the Paris Olympics on Mon­day.

Williams, who won bronze at last year’s World Cham­pi­onships, fin­ished third in Heat 4 in 50.45 sec­onds, be­hind Na­talia Kacz­marek (49.98) of Poland and Cu­ba’s Rox­ana Gomez, who ran a sea­son’s best 50.38.

Pryce com­fort­ably booked her spot by com­fort­ably win­ning Heat 2 in 50.02 sec­onds, while Williams was sec­ond in Heat 1 in a sea­son’s best 50.16 and Brom­field third in Heat 6 in a time of 51.36.

World num­ber one, Mar­ilei­dy Pauli­no was the fastest qual­i­fi­er in 49.42 to win Heat 5.

The Ja­maican trio of Ja­heel Hyde, Roshawn Clarke and Ma­lik James-King, al­so ad­vanced from the open­ing round of the men’s 400 me­tre hur­dles.

In the men’s dis­cus throw, Ja­maica’s Trav­es Smik­le, Ro­je Stona, Ral­ford Mullings, all made it through to the next round.