Kishawn Niles becomes the third Bajan to medal at World U20

National junior record holder for the women’s 100m, Kishawna Niles, on Wednesday became just the third athlete from Barbados ever to win a medal at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships. Niles took bronze in her pet event at the Estadio Atlético de la Videna, with all three medals going to Caribbean athletes.

With a personal best of 11.33 seconds, Niles has grown from strength to strength this season. A member of the MVP Athletics camp in Jamaica, where she attends the University of Technology, she ran well just to make the final.

In the preliminaries, the 19-year-old ran 11.63 seconds to advance to the semifinals. There, she ran 11.39, the fastest time at that stage of the competition.

Come the final, the fastest junior woman in the world this year stamped her class on the field. Jamaica’s Alana Reid won in 11.17 seconds, followed by Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands, in 11.27. Niles was third in 11.37 seconds.

Coming into 2024, Niles has a personal-best of 11.57, which she recorded back in 2022. Since May of this year, however, she has now gone under 11.5 on five occasions, including twice in Lima.

Earlier in the season, Niles had stopped the clock at 11.66 in the Under-20 division at the CARIFTA Games, ending just outside the medals in Grenada. Two years ago, she was part of the Barbados 4x100m team that took silver at the regional festival of junior athletics.

In copping bronze, Niles has joined an exclusive club of Barbados medallists at this meet.

The nation has been represented at this meet since the inaugural staging in Athens, Greece in 1986. Three men and one woman took part. Seibert Straughn advanced to the 400m semifinals. Allan Ince competed in the opening round of the 400m hurdles. Troy Patterson was entered for shot put, discus throw, and javelin throw. And the lone female athlete, Nicola Springer went in the women’s high jump.

It would be nearly 30 years before Barbados got its first medal, but when it came, it was gold. At the 2014 event in Eugene, Oregon, USA, Akela Jones won the women’s long jump, with an effort of 6.34m into a strong headwind. She also qualified for the high jump final, but a knee injury prevented her from attempting the double.

The island’s second medal came courtesy of Mario Burke in 2016. In Bydgoszcz, Poland, Burke wa third in the men’s 100m, behind only gold medallist Noah Lyles of the USA and Filippo Tortu of Italy.

On Thursday,  Barbados will have three athletes on the track in Lima. Brieanna Boyce and Maya Rollins will be in the women’s 100m hurdles preliminaries, whilst Aragorn Straker will go in Round 1 of the men’s 200m.

(TF)