Records broken as action starts in style in Nairobi

A pair of national U20 100m records by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and Namibia’s Beatrice Masilingi, a Czech U20 hammer record by Jan Dolezalek and a strong start by Finnish heptathlete Saga Vanninen highlighted the first morning of action at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 on Wednesday (18). 

Vanninen, the reigning European U20 champion, showed she is well on track to become Finland’s first ever world U20 heptathlon gold medallist by shooting out to an early lead, clocking 13.60 in the 100m hurdles and clearing a season’s best of 1.78m in the high jump. The 18-year-old’s hurdles time was just outside her best of 13.55 while her high jump was just 1cm down on her best. 

Austria’s Sophie Kreiner is her closest pursuer on 1860 points after a 14.51 100m hurdles and 1.78m high jump, while Estonia’s Pippi Lotta Enok sits third on 1855 points after a 14.28 clocking in the hurdles and 1.75m clearance in the high jump. 

On what was a cool morning at the Kasarani Stadium, Tebogo lit up the men’s 100m heats, the Botswanan underlining his credentials for gold with a commanding performance to win in 10.22 (0.7m/s) which made him the quickest qualifier for Wednesday evening’s semifinals. 

Next fastest was South Africa’s Benjamin Richardson who won his heat in 10.28 (1.0m/s). Nigeria’s Godson Oke Oghenebrume showed he will also be in medal contention when taking victory in 10.35 (0.8m/s) while there were also wins for Cuba’s Shainer Rengifo Montoya (10.40), Poland’s Oliwer Wdowik (10.44) and Jamaica’s Bryan Levell (10.43). 

Namibia’s Masilingi was most impressive in her heat of the women’s 100m, powering to victory in a national U20 record of 11.20 (1.0m/s). The next quickest qualifier in the other heats was Jamaica’s Tina Clayton, who clocked 11.50 (-0.1m/s). Camille Rutherford of Bahamas coasted through after taking victory in her heat in 11.59 (0.5m/s) while there were also wins for Nigeria’s Praise Ofoku in 11.65 (0.5m/s) and Serbia’s Ivana Ilic in 11.75 (-0.9m/s). 

Nigeria’s Imaobong Nse Uko breezed through her heat of the women’s 400m as the quickest overall qualifier, clocking 52.33 ahead of Kenya’s Sylvia Chelangat who set a PB of 53.49. Poland’s Kornelia Lesiewicz was also highly impressive when taking victory in an earlier heat in 52.63. Jamaica’s Oneika McAnnuff won her heat in 54.13. 

In the men’s 400m heats Mexico’s Luis Aviles Ferreiro had a breakthrough performance when clocking a national U20 record of 45.63 to advance ahead of Italy’s Lorenzo Benati (46.28). Botswana’s Anthony Pesela led the field home in the next heat in a PB of 45.88, while South Africa’s Lythe Pillay took victory in the final heat in a controlled 46.55.  

Nigeria led the way in qualification for the mixed 4x400m final, taking victory in a championship record of 3:21.66 in their heat. Anchor runner Bamidele Ajayi produced a powerful finish to edge past Kenya’s Elkaneh Kiprotich Chemelil in the home straight, but there was bad news awaiting the host nation after the finish when they were disqualified for a lane infringement. Behind Nigeria, Italy (3:28.00) and South Africa (3:30.43) also advanced automatically. 

India led the way in the first heat, taking victory in 3:23.36 ahead of Czech Republic (3:24.15) and Jamaica (3:24.65). Poland and Sri Lanka also booked their places in the final as non-automatic qualifiers, with Ethiopia disqualified for a lane infringement. 

Czech Republic’s Dolezalek broke new ground in men’s hammer qualification, throwing a national U20 record of 77.58m. Next best in qualifying was Greece’s Orestis Ntousakis who threw 76.25m. Cuba’s Ronald Mencia Zayas (74.98m), Canada’s Ethan Katzberg (74.39m) and France’s Jean Baptiste Bruxelle (74.06m) also secured automatic qualifying marks. 

Cuba’s Juan Carley Vazquez Gomez led the way in men’s shot put qualification, throwing 19.66m to automatically advance along with Belarus’s Yauheni Bryhi (19.28m) and authorised neutral athlete Semen Borodayev (19.22m). 

Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics