Keyshawn Strachan ended a fantastic junior career with another medal for The Bahamas - winning the bronze in the men's javelin at the World Athletics U20 (Under-20) Championships at the Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero in Cali, Colombia. 

On a rainy Friday night in Cali, Strachan had a toss of 72.95 meters (m) – 239’ 4” – to win the bronze. World leader Artur Felfner, of the Ukraine, won the gold medal with a throw of 79.36m (260’ 4”), German Max Dehning won the silver with a throw of 77.24m (253’ 5”) and Strachan settled for the bronze.

It wasn’t one of Strachan’s better performances, but it’s still good enough for bronze at the highest level of competition in the world for under-20 athletes.

Strachan went into the final with the farthest qualifying throw in the qualifying round – a toss of 76.87m (252’ 2”) on Thursday. He’s still number two on the World Athletics Top Performance List for 2022, among under-20 athletes, with a personal best national record throw of 79.89m (262’ 1”), which was done for the gold medal at the CARIFTA Games in Kingston, Jamaica, in April.

On Friday, Strachan scratched on three of his attempts, and had throws of 70.04m (229’ 9”), 72.95m and 71.71m (235’ 3”) on his other three attempts.

Strachan, who heads to Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, in the fall, said he’s looking forward to a successful collegiate and senior career in athletics. He ends a junior career as the junior and senior national record holder in the men’s javelin; a two-time CARIFTA gold medalist in the javelin; the CARIFTA record holder in both the under-17 and under-20 boys divisions; the Penn Relays Champion High School Boys Division; the North 

American, Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Under-18 Boys Champion and now the bronze medalist from the World Junior Championships.

The Bahamas was also set to compete in the men’s 4x400m relay at the World Junior Championships on Friday, but the team was a no-show, listed as Did Not Start (DNS) on the official results sheet.

With one gold and one bronze, The Bahamas finished in a five-way tie for 18th in the medal standings at the World Junior 

Championships. On the placing chart, The Bahamas finished in a three-way tie for 34th with 14 points.

The United States of America won the five-day global meet which wrapped up on Saturday with 166 total points, Jamaica was second with 126 total points and Ethiopia rounded out the top three nations with 116 total points.

A total of 11 athletes represented The Bahamas at the World Junior Championships – seven young men and four young women. The team’s head coach was Corrington Maycock, who was assisted by Daron Lightbourne and John Ingraham.

Antoine Andrews struck gold in the men’s 110m hurdles in a new junior national record of 13.23 seconds which also tied the world lead. His St. John’s College classmate Keyshawn Strachan won the bronze in the men’s javelin with a throw of 72.95m (239’ 4”). 

Overall, there were over 1,500 athletes representing 145 nations in 45 events at the World Junior Championships. It is the pre-eminent meet for under-20 athletes in athletics in the world.

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