Godfrey Khotso Mokoena followed his silver for South Africa in the Long Jump with a national record of 8.09 on Wednesday with the gold in the Triple Jump this evening.
The first round opened strongly with China’s Shujing Zhu taking the lead with 16.64 metres and Ukraine’s Viktor Kuznetsov setting a National Junior record with his opening jump of 16.58, a mark matched by Mokoena with his first jump. 
But whereas the other two were unable to improve on their first jumps, Mokoena went into the lead with his third round effort, when he sprung to 16.68 metres, going on to produce his final winning distance of 16.77 metres with his fourth attempt.

Godfrey Khotso Mokoena followed his silver for South Africa in the Long Jump with a national record of 8.09 on Wednesday with the gold in the Triple Jump this evening

Mokoena adds Triple Jump gold to Long Jump silver

GrossetoThree brilliant World record relay performances by United States' athletes, were the highlight of the closing day of the World Junior Championships in Grosseto on Sunday.
The outstanding overall table-toppers at these Championships, achieved a clean sweep of all four competitions and set World Junior men's 4x100m and 4x400m plus the Junior women's 4x400m records.&nbsp; 
The men after narrowly missing their own World 4x100m relay record by only 0.04sec in the semi-finals, came up trumps in the final.
Slick baton changing at every changeover saw the foursome of David Kimmons, Demi Omole, Ivory Williams and LaShawn Merritt, roar to a new world record time of 38.66sec.
That was 0.26sec quicker than the 38.92sec which won them the title two years ago, and well clear of the opposition.
Jamaica and Japan both achieved season's bests of 39.27sec and 39.43sec for the silver and bronze medals, but were never in contention.
The feat was matched by their women who less than 20 minutes later shattered the 16-year-old 4x400m record set by the former German Democratic Republic in Sudbury.
Alexandria Anderson crashed to the ground exhausted after a superfast first leg, and was receiving treatment as her colleague's Ashlee Kidd, Stephanie Smith and Natasha Hastings roared to a time of 3min 27.60sec.
Winning well clear of Russia who set a National record of 3min 30.,03sec and Jamaica (3min 30.37sec), the USA easily bettered the previous mark of 3min 28.39sec.
Then in the last event of the Championships, the USA's quartet of Brandon Johnson, LaShawn Merrit, Jason Craig and Kerron Clement lowered the 4x400m mark which was set by their much earlier colleagues in 1986.
The inaugural Championships in Athens, saw the USA storm to a time of 3min 01.90sec. Today it was reduced by 0.81sec by their successors.
South Africa and Japan won the silver and bronze medals with African and Asian area records of 3min 04.50sec and 3min 05.33sec. &nbsp; Jamaica with some slick baton changing looked set to retain their women's 4x100m relay crown, until Shalonda Solomon produced a storming last leg for the United States.
The 200m gold medallist taking the baton from Jasmine Baldwin, flew down the finishing straight anchoring her side to its first victory in the event for six years.
The American's time of 43.49sec was the fastest in the World this year. Jamaica (43.63sec), clocked&nbsp; its quickest of the summer while France, the bronze medallists, set a National record of 43.68sec. 
Iran claimed its first-ever World Junior Championships medal -&nbsp; it was fitting Ehsan Hadadi collected a golden one with his discus victory.
Hadadi despatched his implement 62.14m to win ahead of Russia's Oleg Pirog who had a personal best throw of 60.28m with Serbia and Montenegro's Luka Rujevic third with a 59.82m effort. 
Augustine&nbsp; Choge became the sixth Kenyan to win the 5000m gold medal at these 10th Championships,his break 200 metres from home destroying the challenges of Ethiopian's Bado Worku and Tariku Bekele.
Choge won in his fastest time of the summer: 13min 28.93sec, with Worku claiming a personal best in 13min 30.45sec.
In his slipstream, Bekele the younger brother of World 5000m and 10,000m record holder Kenenisa, took the bronze medal, clocking 13min 30.86sec. &nbsp; Aries Merritt won the opening track event of the day when retaining the 110m metres hurdles for the United States.
The World's second fastest junior this summer, won in an untroubled time of 13.56 seconds ahead of Dayon Robles.
The Cuban prevented a US one-two, although he and Kevin Craddock shared the same mark of 13.77sec in a tight finish. &nbsp; Nelya Neporadna last years European champion controlled the 1500 metres final with a fist of steel, from start to finish.
After a fast first lap of 66.79sec, the Ukrainian slowed the pace considerably, before unleashing an unstoppable burst for the line over the last half lap.
Neporadna claimed victory in 4min 15.90sec ahead of Russia's Anna Alminova with Siham Hilali of Morocco, third in 4min 17.39sec.
Irina Kovalenko increased her own world leader of the year when achieving her best ever performance by a centimetre, to win the high jump with a clearance of 1.93m.
The silver went on countback to Russia's Svetlana Shkolina ahead of America's Sharon Day both achieving personal bests of 1.91m. 
Godfrey Mokoena - unlucky not to win the long jump - claimed a second victory for South Africa at the Championships, winning the triple jump with a clearance of 16.77m.
China's Zhu Shujing fiished runner-up wsith a best leap of 16.64m while a Ukrainian record of 16.58m won the bronze medal for Viktor Kutnetsov.<A href="http://www.iaaf.org/wjc04/news/kind=132/index.html" target=_blank>
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Three brilliant World record relay performances by United States' athletes, were the highlight of the closing day of the World Junior Championships in Grosseto on Sunday.

Grosseto - Three World Junior records set in the space of 90 minutes

In less than 20 minutes USA relay teams set two World Junior records here in Grosseto. Following the men’s 4x100m win in a massive 38.66, the women’s 4x400m quartet of Alexandria Anderson, Ashlee Kidd, Stephanie Smith and Natasha Hastings improved Germany’s 16-year-old World junior best to 3:27.60.
Anderson opened with a suicidal 200 metres and struggled to hand the baton to individual 400m bronze medallist Kidd falling to the floor after the changeover. Jamaica and Russia were still in contact but Kidd soon opened a gap which would grow metre by metre. 
By the time 2001 World Youth 400m champion Smith was handed the baton, team USA had a good ten metres lead over&nbsp;Maris Wisdom&nbsp;of Jamaica who had run a superb second leg. 
With reigning World Youth and World Junior champion Hastings taking the baton with over 15 metres to spare the question was would she cross the finish line in a new World junior record time? 
And following a tireless effort from Hastings the answer was yes; she saved 79 hundredths of a second off the previous standard thus erasing Grit Breuer’s name from the World list.
Behind Hastings, 400m silver medallist Sonita Sutherland and 400m Hurdles champion Ekaterina Kostetskaya were battling for silver and it was the Russian’s finishing sprint in the last 20 metres which made the difference. 
Russia set a new national junior record of 3:30.03 in second while Jamaica had to be content with bronze in 3:30.37.

In less than 20 minutes USA relay teams set two World Junior records here in Grosseto. Following the men’s 4x100m win in a massive 38.66, the women’s 4x400m quartet of Alexandria Anderson, Ashlee Kidd, Stephanie Smith and Natasha Hastings improved Germany’s 16-year-old World junior best to 3:27.60.

Women's 4x400m Final

Nelya Neporadna of Ukraine won a very tactical 1500m final in 4:15.90 – the second slowest ever winning time in the history of the World Junior Champs - here in Grosseto. 
Following right behind Ayako Uchino of Japan in the first lap, Neporadna decided to take control of the race as soon as the athletes went through the finish line for the first time. 
Confident that her finishing kick Neporadna went through the 400m in 1:06.79; 800m in 2:21.05 and 1200m in 3:32.03 as all twelve athletes were still in the leading group. At the bell the athletes were stretching over three lanes as Anna Alminova of Russia was trying to take the inside and Siham Hilali of Morocco who had taken the 3000m bronze yesterday, on the outside. 
Australia’s Brooke Simpson was also in the fight for the leading positions as was Danielle Barnes of Great Britain but Neporadna refused to move from the lead and toughened the pace.
As Neporadna was accelerating halfway through the back straight, the pack started to stretch and Alminova was the only one left in the battle for gold as Hilali was three metres down trying to hold on to bronze. 
Initially it looked like Alminova would wait for the final straight to lake her move but as the two Eastern European entered the final 100 metres, Neporadna increased her lead and secured the win.
Alminova took second in a new personal best of 4:16.32 as Hilali took her second bronze of the Championships in 4:17.39.

Nelya Neporadna of Ukraine won a very tactical 1500m final in 4:15.90 – the second slowest ever winning time in the history of the World Junior Champs - here in Grosseto.

Women's 1500m Final

Godfrey Khotso Mokoena followed his silver for South Africa in the Long Jump with a national record of 8.09 on Wednesday with the gold in the Triple Jump this evening.

Men's Triple Jump Final

200m gold medallist here in Grosseto, Shalonda Solomon anchored the American 4x100m team to gold as she ran a superb final leg overtaking Schillonie Calvert of Jamaica and Nelly Banco of France who had both been handed the baton before the American.
16 year old Calvert managed to hold on to silver in 43.63 while Banco crossed the finish line in 43.68 for a new French junior record.
Trinidad and Tobago who had looked impressive in the semi-finals also set a national junior record of 44.14 but had to be content with fourth place. 
It had all started according to plan for team USA as individual 100m champion Ashley Owens took a blistering start and handed the baton in the lead ahead of Jamaica, running in lane 8, as the team only just made it to the final following Kimberly Smith’s injury in the semi-finals. 
But the US baton exchanges were far from perfect and with 200m bronze medallist Anneisha McLaughlin and Aurélie Kamga for France running impressive legs in the second bend it was Jamaica trailed by France and USA as the athletes entered the final straight.
Solomon’s natural speed made the difference and the Pan American junior champion cruised to the finish line almost two tenths of a second faster than Calvert who out-dipped Banco by just 5 hundredths of a second.
It was revenge time for Solomon who ran the third leg for Team USA in Kingston, Jamaica two years ago when the American team was defeated by the local Jamaican team by 22 hundredths of a second.

200m gold medallist here in Grosseto, Shalonda Solomon anchored the American 4x100m team to gold as she ran a superb final leg overtaking Schillonie Calvert of Jamaica and Nelly Banco of France who had both been handed the baton before the American.

Women's 4x100m Final

Although Aries Merritt arrived in Grosseto expected to play second fiddle to the two-time US junior champion (2003 and 2004) at this event, Kevin Craddock, he has improved with every race and was simply uncatchable in the final. 
After one false start from the Cuban, Dayron Robles, the race got away cleanly with Merritt first to break, closely matched by Robles, but from the fifth barrier, the American powered away, clearing the barriers smoothly before cross the line in 13.56 , the clear victor. 
The battle for silver was hot though, with Robles being chased down by Craddock over the final hurdle, but just hanging on for silver, although both athletes were given the same time of 13.77. China’s Lilu Liu was fourth with 13.96.
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Although Aries Merritt arrived in Grosseto expected to play second fiddle to the two-time US junior champion (2003 and 2004) at this event, Kevin Craddock, he has improved with every race and was simply uncatchable in the final.

Men's 110m Hurdles Final

Ehsan Hadadi won Iran its first&nbsp;medal ever in a World Junior Championships when he took gold&nbsp;with a massive 62.14 throw in the fourth round of the men's Discus Throw final.
The first leader in the competition was Luka Rujevic from Serbia and Montenegro, who opened his series with a 59.58 throw that made him the initial leader, a throw he further improved in the third round of throwing, launching his discus out to 59.82, although his fifth round attempt soared out well over the 60 metre line, he stepped outside the circle and was given a foul, but this was after Hadadi took a narrow lead when he threw 60.01 with his third try.
The Iranian followed this up with his winning throw of 62.14, just short of his personal best of 62.24 when winning the Asian Junior title earlier this year, and a fifth round attempt of 60.98, before fouling his last throw. 
After starting with a competent 58.27 Oleg Pirog looked a little shaky, throwing 57.84 and 55.98 with his second and third attempts before fouling twice, Then with his last throw he found hidden reserves and hurled his implement 60.28 for a new personal best and the silver medal, with Rujevic taking bronze.

Ehsan Hadadi won Iran its first gold medal of this Championships with a massive 62.14 throw in the fourth round of the men's Discus Throw final.

Men's Discus Throw Final

Iryna&nbsp;Kovalenko cleared a 2004 world junior leading height of 1.93 at her third attempt to clinch the gold medal this afternoon after a cliffhanging couple of final rounds.
Belarus’ Irina Iskryk was the first athlete out of contention as she failed to clear the starting height of 1.75 with her three attempts. In qualifying on Friday Iskryk had gone clear at every height, with just one failure at 1.83.
With the bar raised to 1.80, the attrition started and a further three athletes of the 14 who lined up at the start of the competition were eliminated: Germany’s Aileen Hermann, USA’s Inika McPherson and Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Radzivil.
1.84 and three failures knocked out Irina Gordeeva of Russia and Anika Smit of South Africa. Iryna Kovalenko from Ukraine was just over the bar at her third try.
With the bar at 1.87, two more heads fell: Greece’s Adonia Steryiou, leaving the competition with a new PB of 1.84, and Kazakhstan’s Anna Ustinova.
Czech Republic’s Oldriska Maresova came to Grosseto with a personal best of 1.82 metres, she left today’s competition with a new best of 1.87. She clearly found the bar at 1.89 too daunting, missing her first attempt, running under the bar at her second and never really getting into her stride as she jumped slowly at her third and final try, taking the bar onto the mattress with her.
Also going out with Maresova at 1.87 were Svitlana Akulenko of Ukraine, jumping below her potential and Germany’s Annett Engel, who marginally improved on her previous personal best of 1.86 from the 2003 edition of the World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke.
The medallists were decided with just three athletes remaining in the competition, now came the time to determine their places on the podium.
With the bar raised to 1.91, there were second attempt clearances from Svetlana Shkolina (RUS) and Iryna Kovalenko (UKR), with USA’s Sharon Day clearing the bar at her third attempt.
This was to be the final clearance for Day and Shkolina, as the pair failed at the following height of 1.93, which Kovalenko cleared at her third attempt to clinch the gold medal with this World Junior Leading height for 2004.
Silver went to Shkolina and bronze to Day on countback.
NB&gt; Kovalenko has no formal training facilities for the High Jump available to her back at home in the Ukraine, in fact she uses the mattress from her own bed on which to land as she practises her jumps!

Iryna  Kovalenko clinched the gold medal this afternoon after a cliffhanging couple of final rounds in the women's high jump.

Women's High Jump Final

The IAAF World Junior Championships had not been one to remember for Kenya's men until Ronald Kipchumba Rutto stood on the start line of the 3000m steeplechase on Saturday.
Four days of the championship had come and gone without a Kenyan man taking a title, with the 800m, 1500m or 10,000m gold medals - events which Kenyans have won on numerous occasions in the past - all going elsewhere.
However, in a thrilling race over the last lap, Rutto responded to the challenge and salvaged Kenyan pride by holding off Qatar's Obaid Musa Amer after a titanic tussle down the home straight.
Rutto clocked a personal best of 8:23.32 while Amer, who was born in Kenya and lived there until 2001, was rewarded with an Asian junior record of 8:23.38.
"I am very happy because the coaches said that I had a big responsibility, I had to bring home a gold medal and bring honour to the national flag. I am very proud to have responded," said a beaming Rutto, who also won the IAAF World Youth title in Sherbrooke, Canada, last year.
"The two Qataris were very strong, I saw that they were good in the heats, but fortunately the tactics I had been given worked out well."
Rutto's tactics, such as they were, were very simple - get to the front, and run very hard! 
He lead through the 1000m mark in 2:47.66 and then passed through 2000m in 5:38.11 before finishing with the second fastest time in championship history. 
Only Rutto's compatriot Raymond Yator has run faster at the World Juniors, his spectacular solo effort four years ago in Santiago de Chile when he posted the current championship best of 8:16.34.
Images of Yator and many other Kenyan steeplechasers were going through Rutto's mind as he heard the gun.
"I was thinking that we have such a long history in this event. There have been so many Kenyans, like (reigning Olympic champion and 1998 World Junior champion) Reuban Kosgei, that have won the junior title. I said to myself I can't let the gold medal fall into anybody else's hands," reflected Rutto.
By six-hundredths of a second, Rutto managed to keep Kenya's remarkable 3000m steeplechase winning streak alive. The country has won the event every time it has been contested at the IAAF World Junior Championships in a run going back to 1988. (The steeplechase at the inaugural Championships in 1986 was over 2000m and won by Spain's Jon Azkueta.)&nbsp; 
Now, Rutto is looking to the future having ensured that Kenyan pride has not been consigned to the past.
"I came here with the intention of running under 8:25 so I am very happy for this as well. But I know that I can run much faster. I am also starting to think about the World Championships next year. I want to go there and win a medal."
Rutto admitted he did not know about the unique feat of South African high jumper Jacques Freitag who won the World Youth title in 1999, the World Juniors the following year and then a gold medal on the senior stage last summer in Paris but it seemed to provide Rutto with food for thought when presented with the fact.
"He is the only athlete right? Winning the world title next year will be tough but if I do it then I will have gone one step further every year and I will have done it quicker than him (Freitag). I will try!" said Rutto brightly, at the thought that another opportunity to enter the annals of athletics history lay before him.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF

The IAAF World Junior Championships had not been one to remember for Kenya's men until Ronald Kipchumba Rutto stood on the start line of the 3000m steeplechase on Saturday.

Rutto answers the Kenyan call

Justine Robbeson won Saturday night's IAAF World Junior Championships heptathlon title with a score of 5868 points in Grosseto.
But the South African was thankful for a marvellous javelin throw which effectively claimed her the gold medal ahead of Viktorija Zemaityte. 
Robbeson's monster javelin throw of 54.16m in the penultimate event of the gruelling seven disciplines, gave her a 238 points cushion, ahead of her nearest rival.&nbsp; 
It seemed certain the gold medal was destined to fall into African hands for the first time in the Championship's 18 years history.
But then in the 800 metres, Robbeson trailing the field finished last and 150 metres behind the winner Marina Goncharova of Russia in a time of 2min 35.20sec.
Fortunately for the 19-year-old from north of Johannesburg, Zemaityte of Lithuania although setting a personal best of 2min 21.07sec, didn't manage to open up a big margin to claim victory.
A nailbiting countdown saw Robbeson claim victory by just 58 points with Germany's Julia Machtig third with a tally of 5679pts.
"Pathetic!," was Robbeson's desciption of her two laps toil around the Italian city's Olympic Stadium.
"I'd gone flat out in every other event and there was just nothing there," said South Africa's first gold medallist on the fifth day of the Championships.
It's something I'll be working, but honestly I think I have proved a point," said Robbeson who missed the last Championships two years ago, injured.
"I've been working on coming here and winning ever since then as some folk didn't think I would get back from my broken ankle. But I have and I won," said the jubilant champion.
Robbeson fourth overnight and trailing the British leader Jessica Ennis by 136 points, was in unstoppable form, topping both the long jump and javelin leaderboards when the action resumed.
A long jump of 6.14m lifted her into second place behind Kathrin Geissler of Germany then in the javelin her huge season's best, effectively won her the gold medal.
Robbeson with two other throws over 50 metres, for the first time in the seven event discipline went to the top of the score sheet. 
Dmitry Starodubtsev raising his personal best by 20cm, claimed a third succesive victory for Russia in the pole vault with a clearance of 5.50m.
Argentinia's German Chiaraviglio won the silver medal with a height of 5.45m,with Liu Feiliang of China third clearing 5.40m.
Ronald Rutto became the ninth successive Kenyan to win the 3,000m steeplechase gold medal in a personal best time of 8min 23.32sec.
Rutto's dip for the line,gave him a narrow 0.06sec victory ahead of Obaid Amer who set a Qatar National record ahead of team-mate Moustafa Shebto who clocked 8min 26.04sec.
Jebichi Yator then won another gold medal for the Kenyan's slicing 13 seconds from her fastest-ever 3,000m time.
Safa Aissaoui set a Tunisian record to clinch the silver medal in 9min 02.47sec with Morocco's Siham Hilali, making it an African clean sweep with a personal best 9min 03.16sec behind her.
Denisa Scerbova's first round clearance of 6.61m won her the long jump ahead of Germany's Sophie Krauel (6.47m) and Veronika Shutkova from Belarusia with a best of 6.22m.
Shot putter Michelle Carter produced her furthest ever shot put of 17.55m in the final round, to win ahead Russia's Anna Avdeyeva (17.13m) with Germany's Christina Schwanitz throwing 16.52m for third place.
Andrey Ruzavin won the 10,000m walk in a time of 40min 58.15sec to take the 25 laps title from fellow Russian Vladimir Kanaykin (40:58.48) with Korea's Kim Hyun-sup claiming the bronze medal in 40:59.24.

Justine Robbeson won Saturday night's IAAF World Junior Championships Heptathlon title with a score of 5868 points in Grosseto thanks to a wonderful Javelin Throw.

Great Javelin throw gives Robbeson Heptathlon Gold

A top class event saw successive world leading junior marks set first by the winning Great Britain team in heat 1, with 3:06.52 and then by an impressive US team who sped to 3:05.28 in heat 2, chased hard all the way by Japan, who came home in 3:06.72, a season’s best. Other impressive outfits included the Brazilians, who set a new South American record of 3:06.55 to finish second in heat 1, and the South Africans who sped home in 3:06.29 to win heat 3 ahead of Australia (3:07.41). With two from each heat qualifying automatically for the final, the fastest losers were Germany with 3:08.50 to finish 3rd in heat 1, and Poland who ran 3:07.55 to finish third in heat 3. Croatia ran a new national junior record of 3:10.04, as did Turkey (3:12.66) and Puerto Rico (3:12.18).

A top class event saw successive world leading junior marks set first by the winning Great Britain team in heat 1, with 3:06.52 and then by an impressive US team who sped to 3:05.28 in heat 2, chased hard all the way by Japan, who came home in 3:06.72, a season’s best.

WORLD ATHLETICS U20 CHAMPIONSHIPS

“It feels good to set a world junior record,” say US junior sprinters

Ehsan Hadadi wins historic gold for Iran in Grosseto

Men's 4x400m Final

Men's 5000m Final

Men's 4x100m Final