Sprinters Devin Augustine and Revell Webster both failed to advance past the preliminary round of the 100-metre sprints on the opening day of the 2022 World Under-20 Track and Field Championships in Cali, Colombia yesterday.

Augustine who has suffered from cramps in the past, pulled up in heat seven of the preliminaries, saying in an interview that he felt it coming on early in the race so he stopped to be sure. Augustine who represents local club Point Fortin New Jets finished with a time of 12.39 seconds in the seventh position.

Botswana sprinter Letsile Tebogo claimed the top qualifying position in the race in 10.00-seconds flat with Poland's Marek Zakrzewski taking second in 10:40 to be among the qualifiers. Italy's Eduardo Longobardi secured the third position but missed out on a qualifying berth with his time of 10:53. In the race Davonte Howell of the Cayman Islands was fourth (10:56), Niko Kangasoja of Finland fifth (10:66) and Wanyae Bell of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) in sixth (10:71).

After the race, Augustine said: "I got out good but halfway through the race I felt like my hamstring tweaked and when I started to accelerate I felt like something pulled so I stopped just to be sure."

"The season was pretty good although I had a major upset in the college season where I pulled my hamstring three times, so I was like when I came back to Trinidad and did personal best times, I felt it made things good.

The personal best times were great and they showed that I can still come back from anything and still run fast," Augustine said.

Meanwhile, Webster was fifth in 10:62, also failing to make the qualifying standard. He said later that he knew he did not perform the way he would have liked but he did his best on the day.

Contesting heat two, webster was a distance from the three qualifying spots that emerged from the race.

South Africa's Benjamin Richardson sealed the win in a time of 10:33 seconds ahead of Cuba's Reynaldo Espinosa (10:41) and Grenada's Nazzio John (10:47), all of whom earned qualifying berths.

Fourth position was Thawatchai Himaiad of Thailand who produced a personal best of 10:55 seconds that still proved to be insufficient.