Traves Smikle - Contributed

BRESSANONE, Italy

The performances by Traves Smikle and Danielle Dowie were predictably identified as the highlights of the 6th World Youth Championships for Jamaica's head coach Danny Hawthorne.

Smikle threw a personal best 61.22 metres to capture Jamaica's first international discus medal, bronze, on the opening day, while Dowie's silver came on the penultimate day in the 400m hurdles.

The 400-metre hurdler, Haw-thorne believed, showed determination and grit.

"I think that she showed some amount of focus, some amount of tenacity," the coach said.

On the other hand, he described Smikle as "an excellent guy".

"He was focused from he left Jamaica and again, he stuck to the task and it paid dividends," the coach said.

Hawthorne despite taking a lot of positives from the team's performance at the Games, admitted there were a few disappointments.

"The medley teams was one of my disappointments. I thought we could have done much better in both relays, but I think inexperience got the better of us," he said.

The girls' team finished sixth while the boys' team, anchored by Javere Bell, who fell close to the line, did not finish.

"However, we have to give thanks for what we have done, We have to go back to the drawing board and next time we will do better," he added.