THE 12TH IAAF World Junior Champio-ships, held in the city of Bydgoszcz, Poland, concluded at the Zawiska Stadium last Sunday and Jamaica, again, were among the top medal winners.

Of the 166 countries represented at the meet, Jamaica were right in the mix, finishing ninth with a total of six medals (one gold, four silver and one bronze) - behind the United States.

The US finished with 17 medals (11G, 4S, 2B) followed by Germany (6G, 1S, 3B), Kenya (4G, 5S, 2B), Russia (4G, 3S), Ethiopia (2G, 3S, 5B), the Ukraine (2G, 1S, 1B), France (2G) and Romania (2G) finished ahead of Jamaica.

At the six-day Championships which featured 1,520 athletes, Dexter Lee was Jamaica's star with gold in the men's 100m but, overall, the competition was highlighted by Ukrainian Vira Rebryk's world junior record in the women's javelin.

There were also 10 championships record, six area junior records and 74 national junior records set on the brand new track in Bydgoszcz.

Apart from Lee's 10.40 seconds for victory in the men's 100m, Nickel Ashmeade and Shermaine Williams' silver medals in the men's 200m and women's 100m hurdles, Jamaica's other highlights included Keiron Stewart's bronze medal run in the men's 110m hurdles.

Jerry Holness, technical leader of the team, agreed: "All the medalists, I think they dug very hard - the conditions did not favour Jamaica nor the Caribbean athletes.

The men's (Oshane Bailey, Lee, Ashmeade and Yohan Blake) and women's (Shawna Anderson, Kaycea Jones, Gayon Evans and Jura Levy) sprint relay teams also won silver medals.

disappointments

A major disappointment, as far as the Jamaicans were concerned, came in the mile relay where the women's team failed to reach the final while the men finished fourth. "Traditionally, we would have love to be in all relay finals," Holness said. "The fact that we did not get into the women's 4x400m final, that's a little bit of a disappointment and the fact we did not get a medal in the men's 4x400m, that too was disappointing," he said.

Another disappointment was that several athletes suffered injuries.

Vaughn McKenzie and Andre Peart, who hurt his hamstring on the eve of his race, along with Misha-Gaye DaCosta, who fainted during a training session, did not take any part in the six-day Championships, which had an average attendance of 9,000 daily.

Shana-Gaye Tracey stopped in the women's 400m hurdles semi-final; Natasha Ruddock fought hard to complete the women's 100m hurdles final with a hamstring injury; Trish-Ann Hawthorne did not show up for the women's 200m semi-finals; Antonique Campbell, winner of the 400m at trials, was missing in the 4x400m relay, while Kayon Robinson fractured her left tibia in the 1600m relay.

Ramone McKenzie, who suffered a hairline fracture at the Penn Relays in April, said he was not fit enough.