Ryon Jones, Staff Reporter

BARCELONA, Spain:
The morning session on the opening day of the 14th IAAF World Junior Championships saw six Jamaican athletes competing with all but one progressing to the semi-finals.

Odean Skeen and Jazeel Murphy won their respective heat in the men’s 100m to advance to the semi-finals set for 12:30 pm. Wednesday.

Murphy won in 10.45 seconds (with a wind of -0.4 m/s) to advance as the fifth fastest qualifier, while Skeen took his heat in 10.50 seconds to be the joint eighth leading qualifier.

Both athletes expressed comfort with their races, saying they just wanted to qualify.

Jamaica’s 110 metres hurdling duo of Yanick Hart and Stefan Fennell also progressed after second place finishes in their heat.

Fennell ran 13.81 seconds (wind-speed -1.3 m/s) to capture heat four, while Hart stopped the clock at 13.87 seconds (wind-speed -1.6 m/s).

Despite battling flu-like symptoms Simoya Campbell’s time of 2.06.18 seconds was good enough for third in the heats of the women’s 800 metres.

She has progressed to the semi-final as the 12th fastest qualifier.

However Desreen Montaque did not fare as well, as she failed to advance from heat six of the half mile event after placing fifth in a time of 2:10.22.

After leading for a portion of the race, Montaque gradually faded.

She expressed great disappointment after the race, complaining of feeling weak due to a slight cold.

sports@gleanerjm.com