LIMA (Peru) – 28 August 2024:
On the second day of the 20th World U20 Athletics Championships here, Chinese discus throwers Han Bingyang and Huang Jingru took the top two spots.
The 17-year-old Bingyang, who earlier this year won the Asian U20 title in Dubai, extended her personal best to 57.73m in the second round to seal the gold. Incidentally, her performance today was also the best mark for a U18 athlete in the World this year. Her teammate and Chinese national junior champion Huang Jingru (19), could hit only 56.47m this evening–just over 1 metre shorter than her PB–to settle with the silver.
Marley Raikiwasa from Australia took the bronze (56.25m). Two other Asian throwers, Chiang Jing-Yuan (Chinese Taipei, 52.57) and Amanat Kamboj (India, 50.06m), finished sixth and tenth respectively.
With today’s win, Bingyang became the sixth Chinese athlete to claim a World U20 title in this event. India’s Seema Antil, the only non-Chinese to finish on top in 2000, subsequently lost her medal due to doping abuse. Seema, however, got a bronze medal in the next edition of the World Junior Championships two years later.
Puripol Boonson finished at silver position:
Thailand’s Asian Games silver medalist Puripol Boonson (18) made amends for his World U20 disappointment two years ago at Cali, where he finished fourth. At the final, the South African Bradley Nkoana and China’s He Jinxian were the first to get out of the blocks. Boonson had a relatively slow start. However, he increased his tempo at the halfway stage to surge past them. At that point, another South African sprinter, Bayanda Walaza, is running ahead of Boonson. Nkoana and Walaza were part of their national sprint relay quartet that recently won a silver medal in the Olympic Games in Paris. The late start caused the Thai sprinter dearly as he could not catch Walaza and had to be satisfied with a silver medal at the end with 10.22 secs. Walaza (10.19s) and Nkoana (10.26) took the other medals. Despite a fine start, Jinxian had trouble completing the second half of the race as he finished eighth and last in 10.51 secs. Japan’s national junior champion, Naoki Nishioka, took fifth place, clocking 10.43s.
Top Indonesian sprinter Lalu Mohammad Zohri (Gold in 2018), Saudi Arabian Mubarak Al-Yami (Silver in 2000), and Japanese Yoshihide Kiryu (Bronze in 2014) were the only other Asian medalists to win medals in the World U20 championships to date.
In 400m, Japan’s Kentaro Shirahata and Indian Jaykumar qualified for the finals. From the steeplechase qualification rounds, the Japanese duo of Tetsu Sasaki (8:41.48) and Soma Nagahara (8:59.44), along with Indian Sharukh Khan (8:45.12 NU20 record), advanced to the finals.
Reid raided fast to claim the 100m gold:
Alana Reid lived up to expectations, extending Jamaican tradition and winning streak by winning the U20 women’s 100m gold in 11.17 secs. This is Jamaica’s fourth straight title in the Junior Worlds.
Australian long jumper Delta Amidzovski leaped 6.58m for the gold ahead of American Sophia Beckmon (6.54m) and Poland’s Julia Adamczyk (6.34m).
China’s Yi Li was the top qualifier in the triple jump (13.38m). In the javelin throw, Yan Ziyi of China was the only Asian to qualify for the final with a throw measured to 55.67m.
Kazakh heptathletes Alina Chistyakova and Irina Konichsheva, the top two in the Asian U20 championships in Dubai, finished well outside the podium as they could not deliver their best in Lima.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for Asian Athletics
