GUYANESE Jackson Clarke blazed his way into the semifinals of the Men’s 200 meters on Thursday at the World Athletics U20 championships in Lima Peru.

Jackson, despite having the slowest reaction time and coming out of Lane 9, made good ground to get in front, outpacing his rivals to the line in 21.37 seconds, ahead of China’s Peng Kong, who was second in 21.19 seconds.

The USA-based Clarke went into the race boasting a personal best (PB) time of 20.62 seconds.

Meanwhile, Athaleyha Hinckson and Nalicia Glen did not make the next round after competing in their women’s 200-meter heat.

Glen was 7th in 25.20 seconds, despite entering the race with a PB of 24.01 seconds.

In Heat 3 of the women’s 200-meter, Athaleyha Hinckson managed fifth place in 24.39 seconds, after going into the race with a PB of 23.76 seconds.

On Wednesday evening, 400m specialist Malachi Austin, after storming his way into the 400 semis with his second place in his heat pulled up in the semis half-way through the race.

A team representative quoted Austin as saying, “I felt a pulling in my hamstring and decided it best to stop running for risk of serious damage.”

The 17-year-old national 400m champion has a PB of 46.35 seconds, and ran a solid 46.92 seconds to advance to the semifinals.

The young athlete, who captured gold at CARFITA, is set to take up a scholarship upon his arrival at an overseas-based college.