DAEGU, South Korea – While running the second leg on Jamaica’s 4×400-meter relay team that broke three minutes in Thursday’s qualifying round at Daegu Stadium, LSU junior Riker Hylton helped lead his team to a spot in Friday’s relay final at this year’s IAAF World Championships in Athletics.
Hylton joined teammates Allodin Fothergill, Lansford Spence and Leford Green to take second place with the first of two qualifying heats as Jamaica crossed the finish line in 2 minutes, 59.13 seconds.
That performance gave the Jamaicans the second-fastest time overall during Thursday’s action in the final event of the morning session as they finished second to the United States (2:58.82) in the first qualifier. A team from South Africa also broke three minutes in relay qualifying with a time of 2:59.21.
Hylton is dangerously poised to bring home a medal from this year’s World Championships as he is ready to compete in the 4×400-meter relay final set to run at 7:15 a.m. CDT on Friday morning.
Sophomore teammate Damar Forbes also saw action for the Jamaican squad as he made his championship debut on Thursday in the men’s long jump competition. After fouling his first two jumps of the qualifying round, Forbes posted a wind-legal mark of 25 feet, 11 ½ inches on his third and final jump of the round as he finished in 20th place overall with the top 12 finishers advancing to Friday’s long jump finals.