After winning medals at every local and regional level, Shaunae Miller took her dominance global, and with her historic performance became just the second Bahamian track and field athlete to win a gold medal at the world's most prestigious junior meet.
Miller ran to a gold medal finish in the women's 400m Thursday night at the 12th International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) World Junior Championships.
Photo: 16-year-old Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas wins the women's 400m title. Photo from Track Alerts.
Miller posted a time of 52.52s in the tightly contested final to handily beat 2010 world leader Margaret Etim of Nigeria who finished in 53.05s, while Bianca Razor of Romania finished third in 53.17s.
The 16-year old St Augustine's College product came into the final with just the third fastest qualifying time, but overpowered the field out of lane seven for the win.
Chantel Malone of the Virgin Islands led the field at the halfway mark, followed closely by the dynamic Nigerian duo of Etim and Bukola Abogunloko.
Etim eventually took the lead and headed the field, but Miller followed closely at the corner, and took the lead for good down the home stretch.
Miller had the slowest recorded reaction time at the gun after she was cautioned after the field came up early in the initial starting cycle. She became only the second gold medallist for the Bahamas at the event after Olympian Sheniqua 'Q' Ferguson captured gold in the 200m in Poland in 2008.
On Sunday, July 25th, on the final day of the championships in Moncton, Canada, The Bahamas Women’s 4x400m relay team of Rashan Brown, Amara Jones, Katerina Seymour, and Shaunae Miller finished in fourth place with a new National Junior record of 3:33.43. This was seven hundredths of a second faster than their Semi-Final run of 3:33.50.
More than 1,400 athletes and team officials from 170 countries are in Moncton city for the IAAF track meet in New Brunswick, Canada.
In the women's 200m, both Anthonique Strachan and Tynia Gaither reached the semifinal but were unable to advance. Strachan finished fourth in heat four in 23.99s, won by Alison Peter of the US Virgin Islands in 23.68s. Gaither finished 8th in heat one in 24.48s.
Strachan advanced to the semifinals when she ran a personal best time of 23.66s to win heat three.
Jodie Williams of Great Britain received the automatic bid when she won the heat in 23.20s.
Gaither's path to the semifinal included a posting of 24.08s in round one when she finished fourth in heat one.
In the men's 200m, Trevorano Mackey reached the semifinal round as well, but failed to advance. He finished seventh in heat in heat two in a time of 21.71s. Allaksandar Linnik of Belaruse took the heat in 20.81s.
Heat two proved to be the fastest of the three semifinals as both the third and fourth place finishers advanced to the final based on times.
Mackey finished fourth in heat six of the preliminary round in 21.42 to qualify, while Laron Hield finished eighth in heat five with a time of 22.15s and failed to advance.
In a surprising turn of events, Dexter Lee of Jamaica, the favourite to capture the sprint double title, was disqualified in round one after a false start.
In the final event of Wednesday's evening session, Raymond Higgs finished 11th in the men's long jump with a disappointing leap of 7.09m.
Competition continues today in the morning session when Aaron Wilmore is slated to contest the men's 110m hurdles, running out of lane four in group E.
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