T&T's Cheyne West will race for gold in the men's 400 metres hurdles on Wednesday at the Trinbago2023 Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG).

Tuesday, on day two of track and field at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain, West was an automatic qualifier to the final in the men's 400m hurdles after placing second in semifinal heat one.

He clocked a time of 53.05 seconds to follow Ayomal Kuda Liyanage of Sri Lanka with 51.99 and finished ahead of Australian Matthew Hunt, another automatic qualifier, with 53.83.

West advanced to Wednesday's medal race with the third-fastest time of the eight finalists. The final is carded for 5.25 pm. The T&T hurdler will face the starter against Kuda Liyanage, Daneil Wright of Jamaica, England's Oliver Parker, Amos Kipkeoi (Kenya), Bapi Hansda (India) and Kevroy Nolan (St Kitts and Nevis).

Steele, Matthew miss out on podium finishes

Andrew Steele and Immani Matthew were fourth and fifth finishers, respectively, in the men's long jump final.

Steele logged his best jump of the evening with his fifth attempt. The 7.16m effort put him in fourth spot, behind eventual respective medallists Cayman Islands' Andrew Stone, who won with a CYG record-breaking 7.70m jump, South African Temosos Masikane with 7.51m and Barbadian Teon Haynes with 7.32m.

Matthew got the better start of the two local jumpers, sitting in second place after the first round with a 7.14m effort behind then-leader Masikane with 7.23m. Steele was in sixth position after his opening 6.87m jump.

However, a foul from Matthew in the second attempt and a 7.41m jump by Stone and a 7.19m effort by Haynes (7.19m) pushed the reigning Carifta Games gold medallist down to fourth. Steele, meanwhile, also went down two spots in eighth place after his 6.82m-jump.

There were no improvements for either T&T jumpers as both fouled their third-round attempt. It was here Stone took the lead with a 7.63m effort with Masikane falling into second spot with a disappointing 5.83m jump after his 7.50-second round jump.

However, the T&T jumpers remained in contention earning three more jumps as they finished among the top eight spots to battle for a place on the podium.

For the next three rounds, Steele registered subsequent jumps of 6.82m, 7.16m and 6.92m while Matthew's struggle continued as he only registered a mark in the fifth round of 6.97m as his fourth and sixth run down the track ended with fouls.

Stone left his best for last, cementing the gold medal with his 7.70m record jump, surpassing the previous record of 7.67m achieved by Ghana's Richard Seklorwu in 2015 in Apia, Samoa. Masikane stayed on for second place improving to 7.51m in the fifth attempt.

T&T's Ruth Irvine endured an underwhelming day, failing to register a qualifying mark in her three throws in the women's discus final. Winning the gold medal was Alicia Khunou of South Africa with 49.53m, Australian Chelsy Wayne copped the silver with 49.39 and Rafaella Aristotelous of Cyprus bagged the bronze.