On the morning of the second day of the IAAF World Athletics U-20 Championships in Lima 24 on Wednesday (28th), fierce competition unfolded in the heptathlon, with Jana Kosciak of Croatia and Lucia Aklin of Switzerland battling for the gold medal in tonight's 800m.
After six meets, Koszczak leads the standings with 5,044 points, 40 points ahead of Acklin. Australia's Mia Cheri is third with 4,771 points. Koszczak won the 800 meters in a personal best time of 2:19.14, but the margin wasn't that great, with Acklin winning in 2:20.84, 23 points ahead. Acklin would need to run the best race of her life to take gold and would need to beat Koszczak by nearly three seconds to win.
The bronze medal race will also be fierce. Sherri has run the 800m in a manually timed time of 2:16.4, while Adela Tkatsova of the Czech Republic, 38 points behind Sherri with 4,733 points, ran a time of 2:18.00.
The second day started well for Kostyak, who posted a personal best of 5.97m in the long jump to put her 85 points ahead of Swiss athlete Aklin, who jumped 5.90m. But Aklin fought back in the javelin, scoring a personal best of 42.36m to beat Kostyak's 40.06m. If she can get back to her normal self in the final 800m, Kostyak, the 2022 European U-18 champion, could also claim the U-20 World title.
Meanwhile, in the women's 400m hurdles heats, Michelle Smith of the Virgin Islands performed brilliantly. Having placed fifth in the last competition in Cali, the teenager was expected to be a medal contender again this time. She clocked 57.85 seconds and showed she still had potential. France's Candice von Plauen followed Smith with a personal best of 58.00 seconds.
France's Meta Toumba also won the heats in a time of 58.05 seconds, while South Africa's Tumi Ramokgopa also won in 58.04 seconds. Other winners were Mira Heikkonen of Finland (58.68), Alesha Bennett of Australia (59.04) and Wiktoria Gadaiska of Poland (58.62).
In the men's 400m hurdles, Finland's Antti Sainio led the heats in a time of 51.19 to win ahead of America's Premier Winn (51.89). Japanese duo Kairi Gonda and Kyo Kikuta were also highly impressive, winning the heats in 51.21 and 51.24 respectively. South African Njabulo Basa, who topped the entry list in April with a time of 49.57, also won in 51.42, along with Vance Nilsson of the United States (51.98), Daniel Wright of Jamaica (51.42) and Michal Lada of the Czech Republic (52.26).
Nigeria's Ella Onojuwewo was the fastest in the women's 400m heats. The Olympic semi-finalist finished comfortably in 52.19 seconds, beating Colombia's Paolo Loboa's personal best of 52.81. Czech Lourdes Gloria Manuel, also an Olympic semi-finalist at Paris, won the heats by a narrow margin in 52.76 seconds, just behind Canada's Deanna Proctor (52.73).
Mikaela Mouton of the United States, one of only three women in the field to break 51 seconds, won the heats in a time of 52.69, also won by Britain's Charlotte Henricks (53.07), Italy's Elisa Valencin (53.82) and the United States' Zaya Akins (52.69).
In the men's 400m heats, Jayden Davis of the United States led the heats and won in 46.32 seconds, while Udeme Okon of South Africa looked the most comfortable in the heats, clocking 47.03 seconds. Japan's Kentaro Shirahata (46.45), Poland's Jakub Sarapo (46.95), Australia's Terrell Thorne (46.44), the United States' Sidi N'Djie (46.83) and Botswana's Ernest Kmeb (46.69) also won.
Only two athletes in the women's javelin heats managed the automatic record of 53.00m: Germany's Miruja Lukas with 56.76m in her second attempt, and China's U-20 world record holder Yang Ziyi with 55.67m in her first attempt. Croatia's Vita Barbic and Switzerland's Sabrina Voss threw 52.30m, while Great Britain's Aisha Jones set a new personal best of 51.78m to qualify for the final. Chinese Taipei's U-20 Asian champion Chu Ping-Hsun also qualified for the final with a throw of 50.75m in her third round.
In the men's high jump heats, Scottie Bynes of the United States and Kaisei Nakatani of Japan led the field with personal bests of 2.24m, clearing 2.12m and comfortably qualifying for the final. The 12 qualifiers did not need the automatic record of 2.17m. China's Dong Xiang, Tito Alofe of the United States and Matteo Scioli of Italy are all medal contenders and easily advanced to the final.
Reigning U-20 world champion Sharifa Dabronova of Uzbekistan reached the women's triple jump final but fell just short of the automatic qualification mark of 13.30 metres. With a jump of 13.24 metres in the second round, the 17-year-old knew she had done enough.
China's Li Yi, who topped the entry list in May with 13.99m, opened with a jump of 13.38m and was the only jumper to make the big quarter. Italy's Erika Giorgia Anoeta Saraceni also impressed with a jump of 13.29m, while Canada's Asia Phillips (13.20m) and France's Clémence Rouget (13.10m) also made it into the final with ease. The biggest victim was two-time Asian U20 champion Kushnoza Shavkatova, who missed the qualifying spot by just three centimetres with a personal best of 12.79m.
Kenya claimed two victories in the men's 3,000m steeplechase, with Matthew Kosgei comfortably winning the first heat in 8:24.64 and Edmund Serem winning the second in 8:46.56.
Cathal Dennehy at the World Athletics Championships
