Tariku Bekele of Ethiopia’s clinched his first ever World title as he won the junior’s 5000m here in Beijing ahead of his countryman Abreham Cherkos Fekele.
The younger brother of World record holder, World and Olympic champion Kenenisa, Bekele clocked 13:31.34 sprinting away from his younger compatriot with 250 metres to go.
Fekele finished a distant second in 13:35.95 to secure Ethiopia’s first double of these championships, ahead of the Kenyan pair of Joseph Ebuya, third in 13:42.93 and Mang’at Kimai Ndiwa fourth in 13:44.03.
A silver medallist at the IAAF World Youth in Sherbrooke 2003 and bronze medallist two years ago in Grosseto’s World Juniors, Bekele wasn’t going to let this title elude him.
Not even a shoe problem would get in the way of him winning his first IAAF World gold medal.
“My foot was hurting during the race because I was running with new shoes which I had never tried before,” he declared after his win.
Referring to his gold, he declared: “It feels really good for me and for my country. We have achieved our gold of complete a one-two double although it was a difficult race. But you know we have had good training, we are in good shape so it is a result which we expected.”
Despite his shoe problem, Bekele took the lead with 5 laps to go taking the pack through the third kilometre mark in 8:27.30. The 19-year-old shared the lead with his countryman as they went through the fourth kilometre in 11:00.32.
The Ethiopian duo distanced Ebuya with just over a lap to go, Bekele’s devastating sprint finish, which is reminiscent of his elder brother’s kick, making the difference in the final stages of the race.
Kidane Tadesse, younger brother of Eritrean Zeresenay Tadesse, finished&nbsp;sixth in 13:51.60.

Tariku Bekele of Ethiopia’s clinched his first ever World title as he won the junior’s 5000m here in Beijing ahead of his countryman Abreham Cherkos Fekele.

Men's 5000m Final

18yearold Dani Samuels of Australia confirmed her pre-event status of favourite to win the women’s Discus Throw final with a new personal best and World Junior leading performance of 60.63m.
The reigning World Youth champion Samuels stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field five of her throws this evening landing further than the second place finisher’s best effort.
“I train to be bullet proof (adaptable) and to believe in my ability,” said Samuels. “I was hoping to crack 60 metres. I was happy with the first throw, but no way was the competition over.”
“70m is a little goal in my head, maybe in 10 years!”
The Chinese pair of Saili Pan and Jian Tan clinched silver and bronze respectively with 57.40 and 56.09 with Belgium’s Annelies Peetroons setting a new national junior record 54.42 for fourth.
Seventh in the Shot Put final, Samuels opened with a 60.22m PB, a performance which she improved further to 60.63m with her third round effort. She threw again over the 60 metres line at her fifth attempt (60.32) and then again at 59.04m to finish with an impressively consistent series.
Pan opened with a 55.32m throw which saw her standing in silver medal position when the order of throws changed at round three. Her season’s best effort came in round four to respond to Tan’s 56.09m fourth effort which was eventually enough for silver.

old Dani Samuels of Australia confirmed her pre-event status of favourite to win the women’s Discus Throw final with a new personal best and World Junior leading performance of 60.63m.

Women's Discus Throw Final

Benjamin Compaoré of France improved his personal best to a World Junior leading 16.61m to win the men’s Triple Jump World Junior title here in Beijing.
After the women’s 4x100m silver and Samuel Coco-Viloin’s silver in the 110m Hurdles earlier this evening Compaoré won his country’s first gold of these championships and the first World Junior gold since Muriel Hurtis’ 200m title back in 1998.
The World Junior leader coming into these championships, Hugo Chila of Ecuador clinched silver with 16.49m to win his country’s first medal since Jefferson Perez gold back in 1992!
China’s Minwei Zhong leapt to a massive 16.29m to move from seventh to third with his sixth and final attempt.
Compaoré opened with 15.86m to take the lead after round one with Hilton Da Silva of Brazil a close second with 15.80m and Chila third with 15.78m. At this stage only 34 centimetres separated first from seventh!
The positions were shuffled around in round two with Chila taking over at the top with 16.18m ahead of Compaoré’s 16.16m and the pair of Dzmitry Platnitski (BLR) and Sheryf El-Sheryf (UKR) both at 16.09m.
Determined to do well for his country, Compaoré landed at a massive 16.61m in round three to respond to Chila’s 16.48m achieved just a few minutes before. Platnitski improved to 16.16m in round five to stand in bronze medal position but it didn’t last long as Zhong’s last jump was measured at 16.29m.
Chila gave it his best shot but his final jump landed just 12 centimetres short of Compaoré’s mark, the Frenchman now able to celebrate.
Eventually Platnitski finished fourth with El-Sheryf in fifth and Da Silva in sixth.
France who hadn’t won any medal until this final day of competition, clinched three in the space of just a couple of hours.

Benjamin Compaoré of France improved his personal best to a World Junior leading 16.61m to win the men’s Triple Jump World Junior title here in Beijing.

Men's Triple Jump Final

17yearold Irene Jelagat led the third Kenyan middle-distance double of these Championships as she completed a 60-second last lap to clinch the women’s 1500m gold medal.
It was a gun to tape win for the Eastern African who clocked a new personal best 4:08.88 to become only the second ever Kenyan woman to win the 1500m World Junior title. “I started very well,” said a delighted winner. “I planned to run in front at first. I broke my PB and this is above my expectations.”
“Yes, I was 10 metres ahead of second but I didn’t know it until I passed the finish line.” 16-year-old Mercy Jelimo Kosgei clocked 4:12.48 to add the World Junior silver to her African Junior Championships silver medal and this winter’s bronze from the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Japan’s Yuriko Kobayashi, the fastest junior in the world this year won the race for bronze as she out-dipped Ethiopia’s Emebet Etea Bedada 4:12.88 to 4:12.94.
A World Youth silver medallist in Marrakech, Kobayashi could not resist to the Kenyan pair but had just enough left in the tank to prevent an African sweep of the medals.
Jelagat led a compact pack in 1:06.99 at 400m and by the time she went past the 800m mark in 2:17.74 it was only her, Kosgei and Bedada at the front, the rest of the field not far behind.
At the bell, Jelagat made her move and quickly gained 5 metres over her country woman while Kobayashi had caught up with Bedada.
Jelagat who clearly wanted to avoid a sprint finish ran an amazing solo in the last lap to clinch her country’s sixth medal of the competition.
"I started very well," said a delighted winner. "

old Irene Jelagat led the third Kenyan middle-distance double of these Championships as she completed a 60-second last lap to clinch the women’s 1500m gold medal.

Women's 1500m Final

She may be just turning seventeen and left with two more years in her junior career, but Kenyan runner Veronica Nyaruai’s achievements both on and off the track are enough to make more illustrious runners green with envy. 
With the earnings of her World Junior cross country silver from Fukuoka, Japan in April, the Nyandarua-born runner built a house for her parents and is the darling of her parents. “Yes they are very proud of me,” she confirmed minutes after crossing the line to win the women’s 3000m race at the 11th IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, China. 
On the global scale, Nyaruai’s reputation as one of the stars of the future is strengthening by the race. In Beijing, the 18-year-old runner took another major step in her pursuit to emulate her role models Catherine Ndereba and Paul Tergat by winning the 3000m. 
“I am delighted about my achievement,” she said. “I am proud of it. I have been training well and so the victory is well deserved.” 
She came into the championships as one of the runners to beat after winning the World Youth title at the same distance in Marrakesh last year. She finished second in the junior race in each of the last two editions of the World cross country championships first to Ethiopian Gelete Burka and then to compatriot Pauline Chemning Korikwiang. 
Over the track, she ran a personal best of 4:08.21 for the 1500m in the IAAF Super Grand Prix meet in Doha and won the trails for Beijing comfortably in Nairobi competing over the 5000m. 
Despite her 5000m results in the trails, Nyaruai says that she wanted to compete over the 3000m. “I love running the 3000m more than any distance,” she says. “I also like running the 1500m, but 3000m is my favourite event.”
With the Beijing race again run in conservative fashion, Nyaruai showed the poise of a runner who has done it many times before overtaking Korikwiang to a powerful victory. In effect, she revenged her defeat to the 18-year-old from Fukuoka earlier this year, although she admits that retaliation was the last thing in her mind. 
“Pauline beat me in Fukuoka and it was OK because she was the better athlete now,” she says. “It is not about revenge. Almost always, the best athlete will win.” 
Now that she has completed the perfect transition from youth to junior competition, Nyaruai has already set herself very specific goals in years ahead.
“I want to return to Beijing and win 5000m gold after two years,” she says with any hint of flinching. “I want to win Olympic gold. That is my biggest dream.” 
Elshadai Negash for the IAAF&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

She may be just turning seventeen and left with two more years in her junior career, but Kenyan runner Veronica Nyaruai’s achievements both on and off the track are enough to make more illustrious runners green with envy.

Veronica Nyaruai takes victory in her stride

An impressive winner of yesterday’s semifinal 18-year-old Artur Noga of Poland was an overwhelming winner in the men’s 110m Hurdles final, the first track event of the day.
Noga improved on the Polish National Junior record for the second time in these championships to outclass the rest of the field in a new Championships record of 13.23.
"I felt fantastic. I didn't think I could break the record again, because the wind was blowing behind me and I am very tall. This is a big disadvantage for me," said an ecstatic winner.
"I will come back again in two years to beat Liu Xiang in the Olympics!"
With the height of the men’s junior hurdles having been lowered to 99cm many national records were set in Beijing with no fewer than four falling in the final.
In second Samuel Coco-Viloin lowered the French standard to 13.35 with Greece’s Konstadinos Douvalidis coming in third in yet another national record of 13.39.
After Douvalidis’ false start, Noga set off to a blasting start and was away from the rest of the field as early as the third barrier was cleared. Despite a technical mistake over the fifth hurdle, Noga maintained his composure and secured his country’s first gold medal of these championships.
It was a much closer race for second as Douvalidis was leading coming off the last barrier but couldn’t counter Coco-Viloin’s finish in the run-in.
It was both France’s and Greece’s first medal of the championships and while the hurdles are now lower, Coco-Viloin replaced none other than World champion Ladji Doucouré on the list of French Junior record holder.
In fourth, Vladimir Zhoukov set a Russian Junior record of 13.53.

An impressive winner of yesterday’s semi-final 18-year-old Artur Noga of Poland was an overwhelming winner in the men’s 110m Hurdles final, the first track event of the day.

Men's 110m Hurdles Final

It took 19yearold Svetlana Radzivil only five jumps to claim her country’s first gold medal of the championships here in Beijing.
Radzivil’s second time clearance at a new national junior record of 1.91m proved enough to claim the women’s High Jump World Junior title as pre-event favourite and World junior leader Xingjuan Zheng had three failures at that height.
The Chinese champion claimed silver with a first time clearance at 1.88m but it was more of a disappointment for the 17-year-old who was looking forward to emulate her team-mate Haiqiang Huang, winner of the men’s contest.
Yekaterina Yevseyeva of Kazakhstan and Annett Engel of Germany shared bronze at 1.84m both athletes maintaining a clean sheet up to then.
Their bronze was awarded on count-back as another three athletes also cleared 1.84m tonight but none at the first attempt.
The Asian Indoor bronze medallist, Radzivil had already taken part in two World Junior Championships before Beijing, her first experience at the age of 15 in Kingston 2002, although she&nbsp;never managed to&nbsp;make the final at any of them.
Tonight all 12 finalists opened at 1.75m with only seven athletes remaining in contention after the third height of 1.84m.
Only Zheng and Radzivil cleared 1.88m with the Uzbek who had cleared 1.91m indoor this year managing this height for her second time in her career.
Although supported by the local crowd, Zheng who will still be eligible to compete in Bydgoszcz 2008 World Junior Championships, had three misses at 1.91m.

old Svetlana Radzivil only five jumps to claim her country’s first gold medal of the championships here in Beijing.

Women's High Jump Final

Draped over the side of the spectator tribune at the beginning of the back straight at the Chaoyang Sport Centre tonight was a banner with the legend, “Margus Hunt - Winner”. About twenty metres away on the infield in the Shot Put circle, the Estonian thrower of that name, already the winner this week in a World junior record* of the Discus Throw gold, reconfirmed this statement with a fourth round 20.17m put. 
While not the first athlete to win two titles at the 11th IAAF World Junior Championships, there is no doubt that Hunt is ‘simply the best’! 
And if there were still any doubters remaining including Egypt’s Abdul Mostafa El-Moaty, who ultimately took silver (20.14m), then Hunt silenced them when he followed up with a 20.53m world junior season best with his fifth. 
Hunt began the championships with a personal best of 18.61m, which he improved to 18.95m in the qualification round, and now his national junior record is 1.58m better than even that! This is the first ever Shot / Discus title double in World Junior Championship history. Quite stunning!
China’s Yanxiang Guo got bronze (19.97m). USA’s John Hickey was fourth with a second round 19.86m (PB) reinstituted after protest - see Event Final Report for details <A href="http://www.iaaf.org/WJC06/news/kind=4/index.html">http://www.iaaf.org/WJC06/news/kind=4/index.html</A> - and in fifth Kuwait got a national junior record via Mashari Mohammad’s 19.79m.
Ooh! Oosthuizen!
In windless conditions John Robert Oosthuizen became the third South African in the history of these championships to take the men’s Javelin Throw title. Like a couple of the winners here in Beijing this week, this was a pure demonstration of the victor's awesome supremacy. Each of his four valid efforts was beyond the silver medal position of Finland’s Ari Mannio’s 77.26, with a career best of 83.07m in the second round, a championship record, topping the series. The Finn for his part, the furthest junior thrower of the year before tonight, only moved up from bronze to silver on his last effort, denying Roman Avramenko of Ukraine, who had been in silver with 76.01 (PB) since his first throw.
Noel Meyer, South Africa's World Youth champion was 10th (70.39m).
No World record but 5.71m wonderful all the same
A championship record&nbsp;was also the reward for Argentina’s German Chiaraviglio, the World Youth champion, who improved on his junior silver two years ago in Grosseto to take the men’s Pole Vault title with a successful second approach to the bar at 5.71m, a PB. Later attempts at a world junior record of 5.81m were seen to be way beyond the Argentinean’s scope but this level can only be a matter of time. The 19-year-old who is coached by his father also spends time each year in Formia, Italy, under the tutelage of the Ukrainian maestro Vitaliy Petrov, the trainer of a line of distinguished names including the men’s and women’s senior World record holders Sergey Bubka and Yelena Isinbayeva.
Silver and bronze medallists were respectively, Yansheng Yang of China who set a personal best of 5.54m, and Russia’s Leonid Kivalov who vaulted 5.42m.
Two devastating bursts, two Kenyan golds
We delighted in two impressive bursts of acceleration by the winners of the women’s 3000m and men’s 3000m Steeplechase finals. 
Firstly, 16-year-old World Youth champion Veronica Wanjiru, claimed junior gold with a devastating turn of speed on the crown of the last bend which deposed of the title hopes of her Kenyan team mate Pauline Korikwiang – 9:02.90 to 9:05.21. China’s Liwei Song who had led at the bell and had first been passed by Korikwiang with 350 to go, held on for bronze (9:06.35) with Ethiopia’s Belaynesh Zemedkun Gebre, who had been part of the leading pack, even more distant by the close in fourth (9:10.92).
Next on track was the steeplechase, and after long time leader Benjamin Kiplagat - who for a while had advantage of over 15 metres on the field - was caught with three laps to go, it came down to a game of chess between two Kenyans, a Moroccan and a Bahraini. Into and out of the last water jump, and Willy Komen and Tareq Mubarek Taher were side by side, virtually locking arms as they flew off the barrier. Yet moments later Taher’s campaign for gold came to a near stop, his leg speed turning from a sprint to a jog, as Komen sped past. Taher seemed mentally stunned by the Kenyan’s final burst, the reduction in his own pace due to the sudden realisation he had met a different class of runner. A lack of belief, rather than mere physical exhaustion.
Komen crossed in 8:14.00, a championship record, Taher held on easily for silver (8:16.64), while a tremendous kick from the second Kenyan Bisluke Kiplagat (8:18.11 PB) managed to catch Abdelghani Ait Bahmad of Morocco, who with 80 metres had looked set for bronze. Still the Moroccan’s 8:20.05 in fourth was at least a national record.
First round knockout – W JT
A championship record also secured the first final of the evening, the women’s Javelin Throw. Going last of the twelve finalists, Germany’s Sandra Schaffarzik, showed there is another Nerius or Obergföll waiting in the wings for the senior tour, improving her personal best from 57.13m to 60.45m to knock the competition into touch. It was to be Germany’s first title in Beijing. Neither she nor her opponents came close to 60m again. Ukraine’s Vira Rebryk’s second round 57.79 for silver – four throws before the German’s big heave – recaptured a briefly lost national junior record. Her team mate Marharyta Dorozhon’s 57.68m PB, having temporarily snatched the national best in the first round, was enough for bronze. At the start of the evening Rebryk had held the national mark at 57.64m.
Last round response – W LJ
Germany was not far away from a second gold in the women’s Long Jump Final with Anika Leipold’s last leap of 6.42m causing Trinidad and Tobago’s Rhonda Watkins a moment or two of tension, as she waited to see if her third round 6.46m lead had been surpassed. In bronze came China’s Yuan Zhang, whose third effort which had held silver for two series of efforts was by contrast one centimetre too short to repel the German’s last round assault. 
Gold from start to finish for Chernova
From event one to event seven it was Russia’s gold in the women’s Heptathlon. Tatyana Chernova, with four PBs over the two days&nbsp;entered the final event with a lead of 336 points, and a fatigued 2:25.49 ‘stroll’ in the 800m (750pts), left her secure in gold. Ida Marcussen of Norway who had moved into overall second ahead of another Russian Yana Panteleyeva thanks to a good Javelin this morning, reaffirmed the silver with an 906 point valued run (2:14.07), with the Russian’s 2:15.96 good enough for 879pts. The end totals were as follows - Gold: 6227PB and world junior season’s lead; Silver: 6020 national junior record; Bronze: 5979. Ukraine’s Iryna Ilkevych was fourth in a national junior record of 5952.
Championship record in sprint hurdles
The track events got underway in good fashion this evening as the new height hurdles (99.0cm) saw the latest revision to the young championship record. In the semi-final round of the men’s 110m Hurdles Poland’s Artur Noga knocked two hundredths off the 13.46 second record clocking of Greek Konstadinos Douvalidis from yesterday’s preliminary round.
Of the three semi-final races, after the Pole, whose time in heat two was run into a 1.4m/s wind, the next fastest was France’s Samuel Coco-Viloin in the final race with a 13.63 (-0.4) run, with Douvalidis the next quickest after taking second place in heat two (13.72 / -1.4). Russia’s Vladimir Zhukov won the first race (13.78). Dennis Martin and Darius Reed of the USA, the fastest of the championship entrants, found qualification difficult. Reed went through as the fastest of the two non-automatic qualifiers in 13.83 (3rd heat one), while Martin missing out altogether, third in heat 3 (13.92).
In the 4x400m relay heats, Nigeria brought home an African junior record of 3:33.00 in the women’s preliminary round, while in the men’s 4x400m, Russia’s 3:05.59 world junior season’s lead topped out the qualification round.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
<A href="http://www.iaaf.org/WJC06/news/kind=4/index.html" target=_blank>Click here for Finals’ Event Reports</A> *subject to ratification

Draped over the side of the spectator tribune at the beginning of the back straight at the Chaoyang Sport Centre tonight was a banner with the legend, “Margus Hunt - Winner”. About twenty metres away on the infield in the Shot Put circle, the Estonian thrower of that name, already the winner this week in a World junior record* of the Discus Throw gold, reconfirmed this statement with a fourth round 20.17m put.

World Junior Champs, Day 5 – PM session summary

Willy Rutto Komen of Kenya shoved off an impressive 14 seconds off his personal best to clock a new Championships record of 8:14.00 to win the men’s 3000m Steeplechase final.
The 2005 African Junior champion sprinted away from Bahraini Tareq Mubarak Taher coming off the last barrier as the two had sprinted shoulder to shoulder for the last 200 metres. 
Taher claimed silver in 8:16.64 with Komen’s team-mate, Bisluke Kipkorir Kiplagat, the World Youth silver medallist, coming back from no-where to overtake Morocco’s Abdelghani Ait Bahmad for bronze. 
It was a new personal best of 8:18.11 for Kiplagat and a new National Junior record for Ait Bahmad.
The Moroccan who had already finished fourth in front of his home crowd at last year’s World Youth Championships was inconsolable as he lied exhausted on the track.
Benjamin Kiplagat of Uganda set the early pace and held onto a five metres lead over the rest of the field until he was eventually caught by his Kenyan namesake with three laps to go.
With just over 800 metres to the finish Taher made a move at the front taking Komen and Ait Bahmad with him. At the bell, Kiplagat was as far down as ten metres behind the Moroccan but it proved not to be enough for Ait Bahmad to claim his country’s second medal of these championships.
It was Kenya’s tenth consecutive World Junior steeplechase title! <A href="http://www.iaaf.org/WJC06/news/kind=4/index.html" target=_blank>Click here for Finals' Event Reports</A>

Willy Rutto Komen of Kenya shoved off an impressive 14 seconds off his personal best to clock a new Championships record of 8:14.00 to win the men’s 3000m Steeplechase final.

Tenth consecutive Steeplechase title for Kenya

The Chinese pair of Hong Liu and Xiangdong Bo completed a sweet double for the host country in the women and men’s finals of the 10,000m Race Walk respectively to highlight the morning session of competition day five at the Chaoyang Sport Centre, here in Beijing.
With two medals in the space of one hour, China was rocketed to the top of the medal standings by countries with 5 gold,&nbsp;2 silver and 2 bronze medals, their best result since the 1998 edition of these championships with still two sessions to go!
It was&nbsp;women first on the track this morning as 25 teenagers representing 20 countries lined-up to compete in the overwhelming heat of Beijing.
Liu breaks away in last kilometre
As expected the final turned out to be a China Vs Russia battle which eventually went in favour of the Asian nation courtesy of a superb last kilometre by 19-year-old Hong Liu.
The Chinese broke away from Tatyana Shemyakina with exactly 1000 metres left in the race following what seemed to be a very clear tactic. Liu covered the last two of the 25 laps with comfortable ease and finished in 45:12.84 more than 20 seconds ahead of Shemyakina.
Earlier in the race, it had looked like Vera Sokolova, the number one Russian in this final, two-time World Race Walk Cup winner and World Youth champion in 2003 would add another title to her résumé but the diminutive Russian who had held onto the lead for the first 5 kilometres dropped down after being shown her second warning with more than 12 laps to go.
Eventually Sokolova came in fourth also overtaken by Romania’s Anamaria Greceanu for bronze.
One-two for China in the men’s race
In the men’s race, the host country went one better as Bo’s gold was backed by Zhengyu Huang’s second place finish in a personal best time of 43:13.29. The Chinese pair preceded Japan’s Yusuke Suzuki (43:45.62) for an Asian sweep of the medals, the first time a European representative fails to win any kind of medal in the men’s Race Walk in the history of the World Junior Championships.
Bo’s display this morning was pure class as the 18-year-old never left the leading pack before breaking away from early race leader Sergey Morozov (who failed to finish the race) and Suzuki with three and a half laps to go. 
He walked the last kilometre alone although helped by the Chinese fans whose cheers from the stands became louder and louder as Huang started to gain ground further back in the field.
Huang overtook Zuzuki and Morozov to lie 150 metres behind Bo at the bell, his silver medal now secured.
The World Youth champion in Marrakesh last year, Morozov collapsed at the finish line when he still had one lap to go his early race efforts evidently paying their toll. Russian continues to dominate Heptathlon
World Junior leader Tatyana Chernova almost doubled her overnight lead of 128 points to&nbsp;336 points after six events in the women’s Heptathlon. 
The 18-year-old Russian who had set three personal bests yesterday, improved yet again on her personal best in the Long Jump, the opening event of day two and although she threw the javelin four metres below her record her 50.51m effort was still the best of the field by a massive five metres this morning.
Chernova, already a World Youth champion last year in Marrakesh, leapt out to 6.35m with her third and final attempt to score 959 points in the Long Jump for an overall total of 4607 points after five events.
Her javelin effort was converted into 870 points which took her total before the seventh and final event to 5477 points.
The battle for silver remains wide open as Ida Marcussen of Norway who was lying in third overnight overtook Yana Panteleyeva, her javelin effort of 45.42m giving her a lead of 14 points (5114) over the Russian (5110) with one event remaining.
Marcussen had dropped down to fourth after the Long Jump but soon recovered taking advantage of Panteleyeva’s weak event. A silver medallist in Marrakesh, the Russian still improved her PB to 40.44m in the Javelin. 
Americans and Jamaicans lead sprint relay qualifiers
Six heats of the 4x100m relays concluded this morning’s session. 
The US female quartet which included American champion Alexandria Anderson in leg two was the fastest qualifier winning heat 2 in 43.67 ahead of Great Britain (44.33). National champion Franciela Krasucki ran a superb final leg to break the South American Junior record and offer Brazil the fastest loser’s spot for the final in 44.43.
Anchored by individual sprint finalist Céline Distel, France had previously won the first heat in 44.02 with China taking the second automatic qualifying spot in a distant 44.99.
In the third and final heat, Jamaica came out on top despite a poor start counting on Carrie Russell and Schilonie Calvert to finish strong in 44.69. Poland was the second automatic qualifier in 44.75 with Russia taking the last spot in the final in 44.92.
In the men’s heats, Jamaica clocked the fastest World Junior time of the year to win the third race in 39.18. Anchorman Yohan Blake, the individual 100m bronze medallist out-dipped Leevan Yearwood of Great Britain who came in second in 39.30.
The USA won heat two in 39.50 ahead of Canada (39.64) who was anchored by Brian Barnett, the 200m silver medallist. The teams of Russia and Poland automatically advance to tomorrow’s final having finished first and second in heat one although their times of 40.06 and 40.07 are slower than three fastest losers.
The two remaining lanes in the final will be filled by Nigeria (39.68 in heat 3) and Poland (39.92 in heat 4). Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF

The Chinese pair of Hong Liu and Xiangdong Bo completed a sweet double for the host country in the women and men’s finals of the 10,000m Race Walk respectively to highlight the morning session of competition day five at the Chaoyang Sport Centre, here in Beijing.

World Junior Champs, Day 5 – AM session summary

Russia’s Tatyana Chernova who had taken the lead in the opening event of the women’s Combined Events with a might 13.70 100m Hurdles run, improved her own World Junior leading performance by 51 points to win the Heptathlon World Junior title here in Beijing.
After the Hurdles, Chernova remained solidly in the lead and with four personal bests in seven events amassed 6227 points, the second best winning mark in the history of these championships behind Carolina Klüft’s 6470 World Junior record win four years ago in Kingston.
Chernova who had a 389 points lead of Norway’s Ida Marcussen before the final event still counted a huge 207 points lead after a cautious run in the 800m.
Having moved from third to second after this morning’s javelin, Marcussen managed to hold on to silver running a personal best time of 2:14.07 in the 800m.
Lying 14 points behind Marcussen before the final event, Yana Panteleyeva of Russia made an attempt to reclaim the silver medal position but failed to distance the Norwegian in the 800m. Instead she paid the toll for her efforts and was out-sprinted in the final stages of the race to finish third in 2:15.96.
Panteleyeva held onto bronze with a final score of 5979, 27 points better than fourth place finisher Iryna Ilkevych of Ukraine, the fastest runner in the 800m with 2:13.00.
Chernova becomes the fifth World Youth champion from Marrakesh to win gold here in Beijing.

Russia’s Tatyana Chernova who had taken the lead in the opening event of the women’s Combined Events with a might 13.70 100m Hurdles run, improved her own World Junior leading performance by 51 points to win the Heptathlon World Junior title here in Beijing.

Women's Heptathlon

19yearold John Robert Oosthuizen of South Africa had signalled his gold medal ambitions when becoming the first automatic qualifier to advance to tonight’s final, his opening effort three days ago an excellent 78.42m.
A finalist at this winter’s Commonwealth Games, Oosthuizen did it again tonight as he opened with 78.52m, a distance which, as it turned, would have been enough for gold.
But the affable South African had more fireworks in store for the Chinese crowd and threw a new personal best, World Junior best performance of the year and Championships record of 83.07m in the second round.
A silver medallist three years ago at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Oosthuizen stood head and shoulders above the rest of the field in a final which saw him throw another two times over the 79-metre line.
A bronze medallist at last year’s European Junior Championships and the World Junior leader coming into these championships Ari Mannio of Finland was lucky to get silver with a last effort of 77.26m which overtook Ukraine’s Roman Avramenko’s 76.01m PB.
Victor Fatecha of Paraguay who won bronze in Marrakesh last year opened with a National Junior record of 75.64m which turned to be his best this evening. The South American finished fourth and was never in medal contention the top three men of this final being in medal position as early as round one was concluded.
Leslie Copeland who had set a National World Junior record of 69.62m for Fiji to advance to tonight’s final improved his record by almost four metres to 73.13m. His seventh place finish is his country's best result since Joe Naivalu's bronze medal 110m Hurdles run back in 1996.
The defending World Youth champion Noel Meyer, also of South Africa finished a disappointing tenth.
Oosthuizen’s is South Africa’s third gold medal in the World Junior Championships history of the men’s Javelin after Marius Corbett in 1994 and Hardus Pienaar in 2000.

old John Robert Oosthuizen of South Africa had signalled his gold medal ambitions when becoming the first automatic qualifier to advance to tonight’s final, his opening effort three days ago an excellent 78.42.

WORLD ATHLETICS U20 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Chernova – following in her mother’s footsteps towards Olympic gold

Gold at last for Tariku Bekele

World Junior Champs, Day 6 – PM session summary

Training in Italy helped Chiaraviglio win gold

Noga wins first title for Poland in Beijing