400m runner Revon Williams, Guyana’s lone competitor at the ongoing World Under-20 Track and Field Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, finished fifth in Heat Three.
His time of 47.56s was not quick enough to advance to the final; in fact, Williams, who is on scholarship at Jamaica College, has a season and personal best of 46.60s.
His Heat was won by South Africa’s Lythe Pillay (46.55s), while Kenya’s Kennedy Kimeu (47.05s) and Belarus’ Raman Valodzkin (47.17s) closed out the top three.
Overall, the 19-year-old from West Coast Berbice placed 13th out of the 23 starters.
Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) President, Aubrey Hutson, indicated that Williams was the lone Guyanese to qualify for the event.
“His performance for this time of the year, I won’t be too critical because it is only the first two in the event that were going forward and that in itself is a very tough set up moving into a new environment like that,” Hutson stated in a comment to News Room Sport on Wednesday.
Hutson added: “I was hoping that a lot more athletes qualify for World Juniors, but our track is not assisting us because Brianna Charles would have run the qualifying standard, but it was wind-aided because of the high winds we experience at Leonora, so you could never tell with the regular wind what she could have done, and that is just one athlete.”
The AAG head further clarified why Williams attended the event without a coach from Guyana: “The AAG did not see it as necessary to pay for another local coach, who this athlete was not training with, to send to this competition when his coach was going to be there. We had communication with his coach and he did a good job.”
Guyana’s lone medal at the World U-20 Championship came in Barcelona 2012, when Kadeica Baird won silver in a time of 51.04 seconds, finishing behind Ashely Spencer (50.50s) and ahead of another American, Erika Rucker (51.10s).