Kingston - Leigh Julius, the 17-year-old sprinter from Cradock in the Eastern Cape, was the only South African survivor after the third day of the IAAF World Junior Championships on Thursday.
He featured in the heats of the 200 metres and recorded the 17th fastest time of the 24 athletes who qualified for Friday's semifinals.
The final will also take place later on Friday.
Julius, who set new SA youth sprinting records of 10.36 and 20.79 sec in April this year but had not competed since then, did not have to exert himself.
He just met the automatic qualifying requirement of finishing among the first three and progressed to the semi-finals in a time of 21.29 sec to secure third place.
Usain Bolt, a 15-year-old Jamaican runner, caused a sensation when he sprinted like someone in the Michael Johnson mould to record a lightning fast 20.58 sec.
It was 0.41 sec faster than two German athletes who both recorded the second fastest times of 20.97 sec.
All the other South African competitors in action found the going extremely tough. Nicolene Cronje, the talented young walker, gained wonderful experience in the 10 000m event and although finishing only 15th, she set a new SA junior record of 50 min 03.34 sec.
It was an improvement of 32.26 sec on her own best mark. She recently dipped under 50 min in South Africa but the time could not be ratified because she had the assistance of male competitors.
Fumi Mitsumara of Japan won the gold medal after covering the distance in 46 min 01.51 sec.
Long jumper Godfrey Mokoena, who recently set a new national record of 7.82m and qualified for the final with a good jump of 7.47m, could do not better than 7.08m and finished 12th and last in the final.
Al-Waheed Ibrahim Abdulla of Qatar won the gold medal with a very good 7.99m.
The two SA runners in the heats of the 3 000m steeplechase, Mandla Maseko and Anthony Godongwana, failed to come close to their personal best times and both finished tenth, failing to qualify for the final.
Their respective times were 9 min 05.69 sec and 9 min 15.59 sec.
Competing in the morning session long jumper Delia Visser was eliminated with a disappointing jump of 5.81 metres.
Yojng Talkmore Nyongani, of Zimbabwe, who recently won the Southern African region's 400m title in Germiston, finished just outside the medals in fourth place with another impressive performance and a time of 45.93 sec.
The gold medal went to Darold Williamson of the USA who clocked 45.37 sec. - Sapa