WU20 Oregon 26 preview: hurdles and steeplechase

Previews for the World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon 26 continue, here with a look at the hurdles and steeplechase events.

Men's 110m hurdles

Ja’Kobe Tharp won the 110m hurdles in Lima for USA in 2024 and two years later he set the world record at just 20 years old. USA looks primed to maintain its dominance, as the two athletes in the field to have broken 13 seconds are both racing for the host nation.

Zacchaeus Brocks and Le'Ezra Brown went head to head at Hayward Field not too long ago at the US U20 championships. Brown won his heat in 12.95 – a North American U20 record that moved him to second on the world U20 all-time list – but Brocks made his mark on the final. Upsetting Brown, he won in 12.98 in photo-finish fashion, becoming the first high schooler to break the 13-second barrier.

Japan's Jeremy Koga will also be in consideration for the podium after clocking 13.05 to win the Asian U20 title, along with Norway's Anthony Ommundsen Johnsen and South African Jayden Parkin.

Women's 100m hurdles

Madeline Cooper, Tumi Ramokgopa, Jil Sanchez and Tiana Marshall all head into this race having bettered 13 seconds this season – an impressive line-up considering the winner at the last edition of this event in Lima in 2024, Kerrica Hill, won in 12.99. This will no doubt lead to a nail-biter of a race that comes down to the last hurdle.

Cooper holds the best time of the four, posting a blistering 12.91 in June to win the US title at Hayward Field. Now she will return to a familiar location with even steeper competition.

Ramokgopa most recently ran 12.96 in Pretoria in April and before that she clocked 12.93 to win the South African U20 title in March, becoming the second African U20 athlete ever to break 13 seconds after Tobi Amusan with 12.83 in 2016. 

Switzerland’s European U20 champion Sanchez has clocked 12.96, while Marshall will want to retain the title for Jamaica after clocking 12.98 in the heats at the Boys and Girls Championships before winning the final. She also won the CARIFTA Games and national U20 titles.

Men's 400m hurdles

Michal Rada was just 0.04 behind the champion, Vance Nilsson, at the World U20 Championships in 2024. Since then, he has only added to his medal collection. The Czech U20 record-holder ran 48.78 to secure a European U20 gold medal in 2025, while also taking home gold for his nation in the 4x400m.

If he hopes to secure gold this year at Hayward Field, he will have to outrun the young Japanese talent Taiju Goto. Goto broke his own world U18 best with 48.09 in June, becoming the Japanese champion while competing against senior athletes at the age of 17. He has the leading season’s best among the entries and plenty of momentum, having also won the Asian U20 title in May.

Matodzi Ndo is another name that makes this race so enticing. Ndo set a South African U20 record of 48.64 at his national championships in March, positioning himself as a major contender in Oregon.

Keenen Davis and Miller Warme compete for the host nation, looking to retain the title for USA.

Women's 400m hurdles

Tumi Ramokgopa headlines both hurdles groups for women as a rising star for South African track and field. In the same competition that she clocked 12.93 in the 100m hurdles – the South African U20 Championships – she completed the hurdles sweep by running 56.05 in the 400m hurdles to secure her second gold medal.

However, her competition will push her to her limits. Romania’s Alexandra Ștefania Uță was the youngest athlete to win a medal at the 2023 European U20 Championships at the age of 15. She put on an even greater performance during the 2025 edition, setting a championship record of 55.55, the fastest PB among the entries in Oregon. This year she has clocked 56.09.

The USA will be represented by Natalie Dumas, who clocked 56.13 in June to take home gold at the national U20 championships. Her PB also dips below 56 seconds; she ran 55.99 in 2025 to win the New Balance Outdoor Nationals, setting a meeting record.

Ramokgopa will be joined in Oregon by her 17-year-old compatriot Megan Nieman, who won the South African U18 Championships in 56.54 in March.

Men's 3000m steeplechase

Although Ethiopia and Kenya have dominated this podium in the past, this year a new team is on the rise: Spain. The nation has two athletes sitting at the top of the entry list, Bakr El Asri and Marti Torregrossa. 

El Asri is the oldest runner set to compete in this race, being born in January of 2007, and is also the only athlete in the field to have bettered 8:30 thanks to his PB of 8:24.40 set in June.

Kenya will still show up, however, in the form of Emmanuel Lemiso and Nicholas Kitum. Lemiso won the Kenyan trials with a PB of 8:35.30, and he teams up with Kitum to try and retain Kenya's title.

France's Basile Astier will also be a name to look out for.

Women's 3000m steeplechase

After running a PB last year of 9:20.83 – the fastest time among the entries by more than five seconds – Wosane Asefa has not been able to reproduce a steeplechase performance of the same magnitude since. The Ethiopian 19-year-old did, however, secure silver at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee in January and she finished fourth in the 3000m steeplechase at the African Championships in a season’s best of 9:41.76 in May.

She will be joined in Oregon by athletes eager to take the steeplechase crown back to their home country. Mercy Chepngeno Koskey and Anatasha Cheptoo will be looking to reclaim the title for Kenya – last won in 2022 in Cali by the now world champion and Olympic bronze medallist Faith Cherotich. Koskey claimed African silver in May, finishing two places ahead of Asefa and running a world U20-leading PB of 9:30.47, while Cheptoo ran 9:33.80 in her most recent race in Nairobi in June.

Almaz Yohannis also clinched a medal at the African Championships, beating her compatriot Asefa to the bronze. They all clash again in Oregon, along with Ema Berková and Anna Svrček, who have both also dipped under 10 minutes this season.

Colin Ernst for the World Athletics Media Academy