Baptiste, James in 200m finals

KELLI-ANN Baptiste and Jamil James both advanced to the women and men 200-metres finals at the IAAF World Junior Track and Field Championships in Grosseto, Italy, yesterday. In the second of three semi-final races, the 18-year-old Baptiste finished second in 23.53 seconds. Running in lane five, the Tobagonian sprinter could not keep pace with Pan American junior gold medallist Shalonda Solomon of the United States, whose 23.13 clocking was fastest in the semis.

In today’s final, the national junior 200m champ who had a season’s best 23.41 in heat two of the preliminary round while finishing second, will face the starter in lane four. James will compete in lane seven in today’s final after he clocked a personal best 20.97 in finishing second in heat two of the semis.