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James Wins World Youth 200 Metres

Posted by CaribShout on July 21, 2009 at 10:30pm

BRESSANONE, Italy, CMC – Grenada’s Kirani James secured his second gold medal at the 6th IAAF World Youth Championship on Sunday when he superbly won the men’s 200 metres on the last day of the meet. James, 16, clocked a personal best 21.05 seconds to win, adding to his 400-metre triumph on Friday. “I am thrilled and happy. I did my best,” said James, who won ahead of Spain’s Alberto Gavalda (21.33). Allison Peter, of the US Virgin Islands (USVI), got silver in the women’s 200 metres. The double medal haul on the last day lifted the English-speaking Caribbean’s take at the five-day meet to six – two gold, three silver and a bronze. James, with his two gold medals, propelled Grenada to a magnificent No.8 spot on the final medal table that was headed by Kenya, six gold, seven silver and one bronze, followed by the USA (6-5-5) and Britain (4-1-1). James, the Commonwealth Youth Games champion last year, who had already grabbed two world level silver medals, one in Ostrava’s World Youths (Under-18) and one at Bydgoszcz’ World Juniors (Under-20) last year, doubled his take in the space of five days. Labelled here as "the next Usain Bolt", James ran three heats in the 400 and then three races in the 200 and clocked a 45.24 Championship record to win the one-lap race in a time quicker than Usain Bolt’s best at the same age. In the shorter sprint, it was Bolt’s mark that James was chasing but the lanky teenager had to be content with a winning time over 6/10ths off Bolt’s Championship record of 20.40 set in Sherbrooke six years ago. “It is a honour for me to be compared to Usain Bolt but I want to write my own history,” he said. “I am proud to come from the Caribbean because we don't have many resources. Bressanone is too cold for me and I still have to get used to the altitude. I would like to come back and ski,” he said. In the women’s 200, Britain’s Jodie Williams took gold in 23.08 to complete the sprint double. Peter, runner-up to her in the 100, was again second last Sunday in a desperately close finish, both credited with the same time, as Peter propelled the USVI to an all-time best two silver medals at the IAAF World Youth meet. Jamaican Celia Walters was eighth in 24.09. Jamaica collected the other medals at the meet -- Traves Smikle, who threw a career-best and national youth record 61.22 metres for bronze in the men’s shot put Danielle Dowie taking silver in the women’s 400-metre hurdles.

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