Iosif Kesidis competes in the hammer at the World U20 Championships in Lima (© Enzo Santos Barreiro)
The field events delivered fireworks on Thursday (29), the third day of action at the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24.
Iosif Kesidis of Cyprus came into the men’s hammer throw final as the runaway favourite and he lived up to the pressure, locking up his first global title with a world U20 leading mark of 82.80m. It was a national U20 record and PB with the 6kg implement for the Cypriot, who upgraded his 2022 bronze medal from Cali.
Kesidis later explained how he was targeting the national U20 record on that final attempt.
“This competition is my best,” said the 19-year-old after winning the first ever gold medal for his nation at the World U20 Championships. “I said to my coach before the goal, the last one I threw: ‘It is the best one, let's go for the record.’ I love this sport.”
In an indication of his dominance, Kesidis was more than seven metres clear of his closest competitor. He could have won gold with every throw he launched today.
Roland Imre of Hungary secured the silver medal, also with his final throw of the day, recording a PB mark of 75.33m. Imre was sitting in fifth going into the last round and met the moment to throw better than he ever has before exactly when it mattered most. It was a great night for the Hungarians as Imre’s compatriot Armin Szabados made it to the podium as well, throwing 74.88m for bronze.
Ethan Olivier of New Zealand equalled his own area U20 record of 17.01m to become the men’s triple jump champion. Olivier was the class of the field with four of his six jumps being good enough to secure him the gold medal.
The moment was a long time in the making as Olivier placed fourth at the 2022 edition of the World U20 Championships in Cali.
It took lifetime best performances to make the podium, with Karson Gordon of the US getting silver on a PB 16.74m jump and Ma Yinglong of China taking the bronze with a PB 16.30m jump. Gordon’s mark was a PB by more than half a metre and Ma came into the event just 10th on the descending order list of season’s bests.
The women’s pole vault final was won by Molly Haywood of the US with a PB clearance of 4.47m. Haywood was strategic about her attempts and didn’t enter the competition until the 4.15m bar. As just two other athletes cleared that height, her place on the podium was decided with a single jump.
Though Haywood was second at the US U20 Championships, she peaked at the right time to retain the global U20 pole vault title for her country after Hana Moll’s gold medal in Cali in 2022.
Magdalena Rauter of Austria was second and Tryphena Hewett of Australia was third, both with clearances at 4.15m and medal colour decided on countback. Rauter and Hewett came into Lima just 12th and 11th, respectively, on the descending order list of season’s bests but they both jumped close to their PBs of 4.20m to earn their podium positions.
Tom Tersek of Slovenia took the gold in the men’s javelin with 76.81m from his last throw of the competition. Though he was the favourite on paper as the only athlete with a season’s best over 80 metres, he was sitting in third place until his clutch final round attempt.
China’s Wang Xiaobo, who was the only other entrant in the field with a PB over 80 metres, earned silver with a mark of 75.50m. Oisin Joyce of Ireland rose to the occasion on his very first throw, breaking his own national U20 record to pick up the bronze in 73.89m. It is Ireland’s first ever throws medal at a World U20 Championships.
Beyond the field event finals, day one of the decathlon closed out with Czechia’s Tomas Jarvinen scoring 4358 points, solidifying a significant lead of 211 points after the first half of competition. Jarvinen soared to a height of 2.12m in the high jump, which was nine centimetres ahead of the next closest competitor. Including the high jump, he won three of the five events on the first day, running 10.82 in the 100m and leaping 7.66m in the long jump.
Poland’s Hubert Troscianka took one of the events Jarvinen did not win – the 400m. He led all competitors with his 47.24 performance, smashing his previous PB of 48.71. Troscianka will head into day two of the decathlon in second place with 4147 points. Sweden is in solid position for medal contention with Elias Kapell currently in third (4013 points) and Leo Goransson in fourth (3935 points).
Jessi Gabriel for World Athletics
