Janae De Gannes into long jump final at World U-20 Champs

CARIFTA champion Janae De Gannes advanced to the final of the women’s long jump competition at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Lima, Peru on August 27 when she jumped a 6.03-metre distance in the qualifying round at the Estadio Atletico de la Villa Deportiva Nacional.

Competing in the first of two qualifying groups, the 17-year-old De Gannes opened up the competition with her 6.03m jump which saw her finishing as the eighth-best jumper in Group A. De Gannes’ jump was the ninth-best mark among the 25 athletes in the competition, allowing her to advance as one of 12 qualifiers.

The Trinidad and Tobago athlete achieved a 5.76m jump on her second attempt, with her third attempt in qualifying being measured at 5.88m.

No athlete achieved the automatic 6.40m qualifying mark, with Spain’s Laura Martinez topping all jumpers with a season’s best 6.37m leap on her second attempt.

Nigeria’s Prestina Ochonogor (6.28m) had the second-best mark in qualifying, with USA’s Sophia Beckmon (6.16m) landing the third-best mark.

Beckmon entered the competition with the best mark among all athletes, having jumped a 6.86m distance in May.

At the Carifta Games in Grenada in April, De Gannes leaped to long jump gold with a Carifta Under-20 record of 6.50m.

The final of the women’s long jump will be contested from 6.20 pm (TT time) on August 28.

Meanwhile, sprinter Che Wickham, a 4x100m relay Under-20 gold medallist at Carifta 2024, didn’t advance beyond the heats of the men’s 100m event as he finished last in heat four in 10.96 seconds.

Nigeria’s Okon Sunday won heat four in 10.48, with Sri Lanka’s Merone Wijesinghe (10.55) getting the second automatic qualifying spot.

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