KC jumpers to kick off medal hunt

Kingston College coach, Jeremy Delisser, believes that the KC duo of Wayne Pinnock and Shawon Coke will produce Jamaica's first two medals at the World Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland.

"Both of them have a chance for medals or do personal best once they execute," Delisser, who is in Tampere with the team, said.

The jumpers qualified for today's final comfortably.

Pinnock, who held the number 1 spot in the world this year for some time, needed only one attempt to get to the automatic qualifying mark of 7.70. His 7.76 attempt means that he has the second farthest jump going into the final behind Japan's Yuki Hashioka, 7.92m.

Coke needed all his three attempts to get to 7.55m and has the ninth farthest jump going into the final.

"It has been a long season for them and at some stage they got some rest. After the National Championships there were some soreness so we just had to deal with physiotherapy work to get them back healthy," Delisser said of his charges' preparation going into the Championship.

NOT FAZED

Hashioka and the Cuban pair of Maykel Vidal and Lester Lescay came into the Championships jumping over 8 metres, but Delisser is not fazed by this.

"This was not a concern for us as it was about our boys executing, and once they do that they will be competitive," said Delisser.

Pinnock's chance of medalling could become more realistic as Vidal struggled in the preliminary round, grabbing the last spot with a modest 7.42 metres, while his teammate, Lescay, failed to make it to the finals after finishing 15th overall in the preliminary round with 7.36 metres.

Today's second session will see six other Jamaicans competing in semi-finals action . At 9:10 a.m, Chrissani May and Shaquena Foote will compete in the women's 800m. Foote will run out of lane seven in heat one while May will come out of lane two in heat 11.

Both Michael Stephens and Michael Bentley will be hoping to put themselves in medal contention for the men' s 100m finals, when they compete in the semi-finals at 9:50 a.m.

Stephens, who won his heat yesterday, is the second fastest qualifier after his new personal best of 10.30 seconds.

Bentley is the fourth fastest after his second place with 10.34 seconds.

The Stephen Francis-trained athlete is drawn in lane six in heat 1 while Stephens will come out of lane four in heat 2. The top two from the three semi-finals will gained an automatic spot to the final with the two fastest losers.