Olympians Bradley Nkoana, Adaeja Hodge, Bayanda Walaza and Alana Reid kept their medal hopes alive on the opening morning of the World Athletics U-20 Championships in Lima on Tuesday (27th).
The athletes breezed through the first round of the 100m and advanced comfortably to the semi-finals in the afternoon, with the final taking place on Wednesday evening.
The World U20 Championships may be the breakout stage for many promising athletes, but Nkoana and Walaza have already enjoyed great success at the senior level: just two weeks ago at the Olympics they teamed up with Akani Simbine and Shaun Maswangani to win silver in the 4x100m for South Africa, before travelling from Paris to Peru to compete for the age group crown.
On a cloudy morning in Lima, Nkoana, who had a personal best of 10.03 on the 100m entry list, appeared to be in control as he matched the time in the men's 100m heats. The 19-year-old clocked 10.27 seconds in the seventh heat, beating American Brayden Williams, who had a personal best of 10.32, before Japan's Nishioka Naoki matched Nkoana's time in the eighth heat to win.
Bradley Nkoana wins the 100m heat at the World U20 Championships in Lima (©Enzo Santos Barreiro)
Waraza won the second heat by just 0.01 seconds and will now face fellow heat winners Teddy Wilson (10.29), DeAndre Daly (10.37), Gary Card (10.40), Pripol Boonthong (10.41) and Okon Israel Sunday (10.48) in the semi-finals.
“I felt the pressure before competing in Lima, the nerves were getting to me,” Nkoana said, “but I think I can handle it.”
Hodge made her Olympic debut in Paris, where she bore the British Virgin Islands' flag during the opening ceremony and reached the semi-finals of the 200 meters. The 18-year-old competed in the 100 meters on the first day in Lima. She qualified in 11.45 seconds, 0.01 seconds faster than Reed's time, and Reed easily won the qualifying heat.
Reid, who set a Jamaican U-20 record of 10.92 last year to lead the world U-20 athlete, was part of Jamaica's 4x100m team to fifth place in Paris and will be hoping to add another medal this week to his World U-20 200m bronze medal he won in California two years ago.
Among the athletes aiming for a place in the 100m final are Nia Wedderburn-Goodison and Mabel Akande of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who won their heats in 11.47s and 11.53s respectively, plus South Africa's Viwe Zinke (11.61s) and Switzerland's Chloe Labac (11.77s).
The foursome of Jordan Gilbert, Bella Pasquali, Jack Deguara and Sofia Gregorevic performed strongly in the mixed 4x400m heats, setting an Oceania U20 record with a combined time of 3:21.10 to take the lead in the first round.
India, who won a silver medal in Kari and a bronze medal in the event's debut at the World U-20 Championships in Nairobi in 2021, will be aiming for more medals after finishing second in the first heat in a time of 3:22.54.
Poland was also in the running for a podium spot, their foursome winning heat three in 3:21.92 ahead of Norway (3:23.93). Germany and Jamaica secured the top two places in heat two and will advance to the final.
The morning's track action concluded with the women's 800m heats, with 16-year-old Rin Kubo of Japan fastest, winning in 2:04.53, followed by Ethiopia's Astel Areli and Germany's Marie-Celié Warneke in PBs of 2:04.76 and 2:04.80 respectively, while Sarah Mora, cousin of world 800m champion Mary Mora, won in 2:05.11.
Mohamed Karim Amri of Tunisia was the fastest to reach the 800m semi-finals with a personal best time of 1:49.21. Kenya's Kelvin Kimutai Koech won the same heat in 1:49.28, while Heneral Berhanu Ayansa of Ethiopia also won in 1:49.48.
Kosciak leads heptathlon in two Olympics
Jana Kosciak of Croatia held the top spot in the heptathlon after the first two events, but another medal contender, Sarolta Christi of Hungary, suffered a disappointing fall in the opening 100m hurdles.
Kosciak, who will win the European U-18 title in 2022, began her campaign in the hurdles with a time of 13.80 to finish second to Adela Tkacova of the Czech Republic in 13.72. Lucia Acklin of Switzerland followed close behind in a personal best of 13.81, but Chris fell and got up to finish the race before being disqualified.
Yana Koszak in action in Lima (© Enzo Santos Barreiro)
Koshtyak again came out on top in the high jump and although her personal best of 1.81m was a long way off her previous best of 1.92m it was enough to vault her to first place overall with 1,998 points, ahead of Kazakhstan's Alina Chistyakova (1,858), Australia's Mia Cheri (1,795) and Tokakova (1,789).
In the women's discus qualifying round, China's Huang Jingrou and Han Bingyang were the top two pairs, with Huang throwing 56.45 metres and Han throwing 55.64 metres, while Canada's Julia Tunks also beat the automatic qualification mark with a throw of 53.45 metres.
In the qualifying round for the women's long jump final, Laura Martinez of Spain, a bronze medallist at the 2022 European U-18 Championships, topped Group A with a season's best of 6.37m. Prestina Oluchi-Ochonogor of Nigeria, who competed in the Paris Olympic final, was runner-up with 6.28m, and Sophia Beckmon of the United States, who topped the entry list with a personal best of 6.86m set in May, also advanced with a jump of 6.16m.
Ireland's Elizabeth Ndudi came last in the final. Both she and Serbia's Dunja Sedlacek had a best jump of 5.95 metres, but Ndudi qualified with the second-best jump.
Kesidis takes on the hammer throw final
Cyprus' Iosif Kesidis needed just one throw to keep his hammer gold medal hopes alive after qualifying with the longest throw of the morning. The 19-year-old threw 78.53m, well above the automatic qualifying mark of 73.00m, to advance to Thursday's final where he will aim to become Cyprus' first U-20 world champion and improve on the bronze medal he won in Cali two years ago.
In Group A, Roland Imre set the automatic record with a new personal best of 75.26m. In Group B, his Hungarian teammate Armin Szabados topped the list with a throw of 74.20m. Topping the non-automatic qualifiers were American Ryan Johnson (72.88m) and China's Xu Zheng (71.09m). Greece's Georgios Papanastasios, who threw 77.77m this year, will not be competing in the final after failing to record the record in three attempts.
Joseph Kesidis competes in the hammer throw qualifying round in Lima (© Oscar Muñoz Badilla)
Jannik Rolvink and Georg Harpf will be the favourites in the men's shot put final after setting PRs this year of 21.81m and 20.61m respectively. Rolvink, the Dutch U-20 record holder, threw 19.87m on his first attempt to earn an automatic qualifier of 19.70m, while Germany's Harpf followed up a first throw of 19.51m with a throw of 20.32m.
20.32m was the best time of the morning but Aleksandr Mazur broke the 20m barrier for the first time with a Moldovan record of 20.11m to book his place in the final, joined by South African JL van Rensburg who also set a new PB of 20m.
But one of the leading contenders was ruled out after US U-20 champion Ben Smith, who won the national title with a personal best throw of 20.57 metres, fouled on three attempts.
Paris Olympian Ethan Olivier qualified for the World U20 Final for the second year in a row in 2022 by coming fourth in the triple jump in Cali, leaping 16.37m, beating the motor qualifying record of 16.00m – the other athletes to achieve this feat were Sterling Scott of the USA (16.29m PB), Ma Yinglong of China (16.21m) and Carson Gordon of the USA (16.19m).
Jess Whittington of World Athletics
