Trinidad and Tobago's Makaelen Woods was edged out on the line for the bronze medal in the men’s 200m final on the penultimate day of competition at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, in Oregon, USA, on Saturday night.
Running from lane four, the 18-year-old Woods crossed the finish line in 20.58 seconds, finishing just behind Barbadian Jayden Green, who got bronze in 20.55, in a near photo-finish.
American Tate Taylor captured the gold medal in the world championship record run of 19.83 seconds, with Blake Hamilton making it a one-two with a time of 20.31.
With the win, Taylor achieved the fifth men’s 100m and 200m double in the history of the World U20 Championships.
He closed fast, pulling away over the last 100m as he and compatriot Blake Hamilton went stride for stride for the first 100m and held on to finish second in 20.31, clinching a US top two.
NACAC Under-23 champion Jayden Green took home bronze for Barbados in 20.55, edging out Woods by 0.03, with Japan’s Tomoro Ide being fifth in 20.67 and Jamaica’s Gary Card, the 100m silver medallist, finishing sixth in 20.74.
The rest of the finishers were Switzerland's Emile Munenthaler (20.84), South Korea's Chae-min Jun (21.03), and Portugal's Pedro Afonso (21.11).
In the semifinals on Friday night, Woods, a two-time national age-group champion, had the fourth fastest time overall after an impressive run in the third and final heat with a second-place finish from lane eight in a personal best time of 20.47 to trail Taylor, who won in 20.34 from lane five, while Jun was third in 20.88 from lane nine.
In the first men’s 200m semifinal heat, Hamilton won in 20.38 seconds and was joined in the final by Green in 20.46 seconds and Card, the 100m silver medal winner, who clocked 20.64.
Ide won heat two in 20.63, with Afonso second in a national under-20 record time of 20.66 and Mumenthaler third in 20.82.
When the first round heats took place on Friday morning, Woods, running from lane two, stormed into the semifinals of the men’s 200m following his win in heat two of seven in 20.92 seconds, the 15th fastest time in the heats, with South African Mukona Manavhela second in 21.10 and Slovakian Richard Machata third in 21.19 to secure the two other automatic qualification spots from the heat.
On Friday night, Imani Mills, 18, struggled in her women’s 200m semifinal heat one and placed ninth in 23.74 seconds, the 21st fastest time overall.
This was after Mills, competing from lane five of heat eight of nine in round one, crossed the finish line in 23.75 seconds for the second automatic qualification spot from the heat and the 24th best time overall, while the USA’s Mariah Maxwell, who won the heat in 23.37, had the 11th best time in the heats.
However, in heat six of the women’s 200m, T&T’s Kaori Robley was a fourth-place finisher in 24.00 seconds and did not advance.
In the women’s 100m hurdles seventh and final heat, T&T’s Jenna-Marie Thomas finished in the eighth spot in 14.20 seconds and 48th overall.
Also on Saturday, Omari Brown was ninth in the third semifinal heat in 52.14 seconds.
<T&T's 4x100 relay boys are fifth; girls are eighth>
Trinidad and Tobago athletes ended their campaign without a medal after both the men's and women's 4x100m relay finals when the curtain came down on the championship on Sunday.
The men's quartet of Kadeem Chinapoo, Alex Seepersad, Makaelan Woods and Trevaughn Stewart crossed the line in 39.44 seconds for the fifth spot, beating South Africa (39.48), Germany (30.79), and Belgium (39.83) to the line, with the Switzerland team being disqualified.
The USA, with men's 100m and 200m champion Tate Taylor on the anchor leg and 200m runner-up Blake Hamilton on the first leg, followed by Dillon Mitchell and Kyler Brown, stormed to the gold medal in a new world under-20 championship record mark of 38.16 seconds, which erased the previous record mark of 38.51 by South Africa in 2021.
Great Britain's quartet of Divine Iheme, Jake Obey-Jordan, Ethan Franklin and James Arminio earned the silver medal in a new European age-group record time of 38.90, while Jamaica's Kyle Bodden, Gary Card, Nyrone Wade and Sanjay Seymore took the bronze in 39.01, a season best.
A day earlier in the semifinals, Chinapoo, Seepersad, Woods, and Stewart cruised to victory in the second of four heats in 39.40 seconds, a season best, with South Africa second in 39.86, also a season best, to secure the two automatic spots to the final, while the Czech Republic was third in 40.30 secs.
Jamaica won heat one in 39.51 and was joined in the final by Japan, which ended in the second position in 39.65, both season best times, while Great Britain/Northern Ireland won heat three in 39.38 with Germany second in 39.39 and Belgium third in 39.45, a national record, to sneak into the final as the fastest loser, and in heat four, the USA qualified as the winner in 38.87, a season best, with Switzerland second in 39.32, a national age-group record.
In the women's 4x100m relay final, the T&T foursome of Imani Mills (11.74 seconds), Noemi Theodore (11.50), Kayla Charles (11.26), and Zada Charles (10.79) combined for a time of 45.29 seconds, with Nigeria being disqualified for a false start on the first leg in the final.
The Jamaican quartet of Sashana Johnson, Thelanna-Lee Terrelong, Natrece East and Shanoya Douglas won in a world-leading time of 42.89 seconds, while Switzerland securing the silver medals in 43.36, with Belgium third in 43.91 seconds.
The other T&T athlete involved in the day's programme was Seannah Parsons, who was 12th of 13 competitors in Group B of the women’s triple jump qualifiers. She recorded a best jump of 12.68 metres.
