Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium (© Marta Gorczynska)
The wait is almost over. The Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium is ready to welcome the world’s best teenage athletes for the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22, taking place from 1-6 August.
The action-packed six-day programme gets under way on Monday with two finals, decathlon competition and a whole host of qualification rounds and heats.
Full daily highlights at a glance
Here are three things to follow on day one.
First crown to be claimed
The first winner of the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 will be crowned in the women's 3000m. Aged just 15, Tsiyon Abebe has already made a mark on the world U18 all-time list and now the Ethiopian talent looks to leave an impression on the world U20 stage.
Racing at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rabat at the start of June, Abebe clocked 8:44.82 to improve on the 9:09.5 she recorded to win the Ethiopian U20 title in March. That performance in Rabat moved her to ninth on the world U18 all-time list and makes her the quickest on the start line in Cali.
She faces some strong competition for the title, however. Betty Chelangat and Nancy Cherop will be looking to follow in the footsteps of their compatriot Teresiah Muthoni Gateri, who won the 3000m title for Kenya on home soil last year, and they have also dipped below nine minutes for the discipline this year. So too has Abebe's compatiot Bertukan Welde, with 8:59.10 recorded at the Diamond League meeting in Doha. Finland’s Ilona Mononen will also be on the hunt for a medal, looking to improve on her fifth-place finish in Nairobi last year.
Tsiyon Abebe races behind Mercy Cherono and Medina Eisa in the 3000m at the Wanda Diamond League in Rabat (© Geoffroy Van der Hasselt for Diamond League AG)
From Oregon to Cali
Some of the rising stars in action at the recent World Athletics Championships Oregon22 will take to the track again as they go for U20 gold in Cali. Eritrea’s Merhawi Mebrahtu and Uganda’s Peter Maru both raced in the 5000m heats in Eugene, while Mebrahtu’s teammate Samuel Habtom finished 17th in the 10,000m final.
National U20 record-holder Mebrahtu was fifth in the 5000m and fourth in the 3000m at the last edition of the World U20 Championships and will be targeting his first podium place, while Habtom claimed 3000m bronze in Nairobi and then finished one place behind his compatriot in the 5000m final the following day. Maru also seeks a first global medal after finishing fifth in the 1500m in Nairobi last August.
Despite their impressive performances so far, this trio does not feature the fastest in the field – that top spot is filled by Ethiopia’s Addisu Yihune, who finished fourth in Nairobi. He ran his 12:58.99 PB in June 2021 and clocked 13:02.10 to win in Grosseto in May.
In a competitive clash, this quartet will be joined by athletes including Maru’s teammate Rogers Kibet, Japan’s Keita Sato and Kanya’s Samuel Kibathi.
10 events, one winner
Some of the world’s best U20 combined events athletes will get their campaigns under way on Monday, when the morning session hosts the decathlon 100m, long jump and shot put, before the high jump and 400m in the afternoon.
Five of the entries have surpassed 7500 points this season, led by Jacob Thelander with the Swedish U20 record of 7823 he achieved in Ljungby in May. Look out for him on Monday afternoon, as the high jump is among his strongest events – he set a 2.10m PB in that discipline earlier this year and also has a wind-legal long jump best of 7.36m.
Pol Ferrer won this year's Spanish U20 title with a score of 7623, while Yoram Vriezen claimed the Dutch U20 title with a 7592 PB. French teammates Pierre Blaecke and Sacha Rifflart have respectively set PBs of 7584 and 7571 this year.
The winner will be crowned on day two.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
