Poland's&nbsp;Konrad Bukowiecki proved he is well on track to take shot put gold at the IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016 when throwing a whopping 22.29m to win the Polish U20 Championships in Suwalki on Sunday (3).&nbsp;
The 19-year-old's performance&nbsp;with the 6kg implement&nbsp;proved&nbsp;the highlight of the three-day event which saw Poland's best teenage athletes hoping to&nbsp;prove&nbsp;their form&nbsp;ahead of the championships in Bydgoszcz, which take place&nbsp;from July 19-24.&nbsp;
Bukowiecki started 2016 in outstanding form, throwing a world U20 indoor record of 22.48m in Torun and he has continued that dominance outdoors when throwing a world U20 best with a senior implement (7.26kg) of 21.14m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Oslo.&nbsp;
In Suwalki on Sunday, he opened with a relatively modest put of 20.45m, fouled his next two attempts, then threw 21.60m in the fourth round before unleashing his winning effort of 22.29m in the fifth.&nbsp;
It was enough to give him a comfortable victory over runner-up Szymon Mazur, who had a best of 19.71m, and means Bukowiecki now holds the four best throws in the world this year by an U20 athlete, with his closest rival ahead of Bydgoszcz being Romania's Andrei Toader, who has a best of 21.15m.&nbsp;
On Friday&nbsp;Bukowiecki finished runner-up in the discus, his best throw of 55.64m coming up short against the 57.67m thrown by Oskar Stachnik.&nbsp;
<h3>World U20 lead for Konieczek in steeplechase</h3>
Elsewhere, Aneta Konieczek ran the fastest time in the world this year by an U20 athlete in winning the women's 2000m steeplechase, her time of 6:35.65 taking five seconds off the previous world U20 lead of 6:40.58 by&nbsp;Anna Mark Helwigh of Denmark. Konieczek came home well clear of&nbsp;Daria Maik, who was runner-up in 6:56.08.&nbsp;
The men's 400m final proved a close contest with five athletes dipping below 48 seconds, the title going to Tymoteusz Zimny in 47.14. The men's 110m hurdles was won by Dawid Zebrowski in a 13.58 (1.5m/s).&nbsp;
In the men's long jump, Jakub Andrzejczak launched himself into medal contention in Bydgoszcz by setting a PB of 7.86m (1.6m/s) to take the title with ease.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Klaudia Maruszewska threw a PB of 52.02m to win the women's javelin, while Anna Niedbala launched&nbsp;a PB of 15.75m to edge victory in the women's shot put from Maja Slepowronska, who also made a breakthrough&nbsp;with her best effort of 15.69m.&nbsp;
Another to impress was Agnieszka Kaszuba, who cleared 4.10m to win the women's pole vault. Aleksandra Nowakowska took a marginal victory in the women's high jump, her best clearance of 1.77m giving her a two-centimetre victory ahead of Julia Dutkiewicz.
There was also a horde of Australian athletes in action at the event, with Alexandra Hulley one of those to triumph on foreign soil, her 62.41m throw in the hammer giving her victory ahead of Poland's Kinga Lepkowska (58.32m).
Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF

Poland's Konrad Bukowiecki proved he is well on track to take shot put gold at the IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016 when throwing a whopping 22.29m to win the Polish U20 Championships in Suwalki on Sunday (3). 

Shot put star Bukowiecki goes long at Polish U20 Championships

Teenage sprinter Jack Hale stunned his opponents at the Australian All Schools Championships in Adelaide on Saturday (6) after winning the 100m in a wind-assisted 10.13, the fastest time ever recorded under any conditions by a youth athlete.Aided by a 3.4m/s tailwind, Hale came through strong in the second half to take the victory, overtaking Rohan Browning, who finished second in 10.18, and Trae Williams, who clocked 10.33 in third place.Earlier in the day, Hale posted the fastest time in the heats with a 10.73 clocking into a -2.8m/s breeze. Officials then switched the direction of the 100m final to ensure conditions would be conducive to fast times.His performance has marked him out as one of the early favourites for next year&rsquo;s IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Colombia.&ldquo;My start was terrible, but I came home strong to win,&rdquo; said Hale, who earlier this year set an Australian youth best of 10.42. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first time ever I&rsquo;ve had someone to chase down. To have that competition makes me really happy because it means my time came down to what it did.&ldquo;The winds were really strong, but the plan is to go somewhere like that with legal conditions,&rdquo; added Hale, who on Sunday went on to win the 200m in a wind-legal 21.29. &ldquo;Rohan was next to me across the race. He has one of the greatest starts you&rsquo;ll ever see in your life and with 20 metres to go he had me. I&rsquo;m just impressed with how it played out. It was a great race.&rdquo;Although Hale&rsquo;s wind-assisted 10.13 won&rsquo;t count for record purposes, it is faster than the windy 10.17 (3.8m/s) set in 1987 by USA&rsquo;s Quincy Watts, the previous holder of the fastest ever time set by a youth athlete under any conditions.The official world youth best is held by Japan&rsquo;s Yoshihide Kiryu at 10.19, but Hale will have the whole of the 2016 season in which to attack that mark.Hale, whose PB of 7.66m puts him second on the 2014 world youth lists, had hoped to contest the long jump in Adelaide, but withdrew from the event at the last minute.All three of his PBs set in recent months &ndash; 10.42 in the 100m, 21.29 in the 200m and 7.66m in the long jump &ndash; exceed Athletics Australia&rsquo;s qualifying standards for the World Youth Championships.His next target is the Australian Junior Championships in March, where the outcome of the under-18 finals will decide which athletes will qualify for the World Youth Championships.<h3>Records in the hammer</h3> Hammer thrower Ned Weatherly added almost two metres to the meeting record set last year by world youth bronze medallist Matt Denny. His mark of 79.03m was enough to win by more than 10 metres and takes him to third on this year&rsquo;s world youth lists.Like Hale, Weatherly will be young enough to compete at next year&rsquo;s World Youth Championships. After winning the shot and taking silver in the discus in Adelaide, Weatherly may even decide to double up in Cali.In the girls&rsquo; hammer, Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Alex Hulley broke her own national youth record, throwing 71.14m in her final competitions as a youth athlete. Her winning mark moved her to fifth on the world youth all-time list.&ldquo;This is my last competition with the 3kg hammer, so it&rsquo;s good to close with a personal best,&rdquo; said Hulley.Elsewhere, Andrea Thompson set a PB of 6.10m to win the girls&rsquo; long jump with a Cali qualifier. Kirsty Williams won the discus with 50.91m, while second-placed Samantha Peace hit a World Youths qualifying mark with 47.93m in second place.Clara Smith narrowly missed the World Youth qualifying mark in the girls&rsquo; 5000m, but was rewarded with a meeting record after stopping the clock at 23:24.64. The meeting record also fell in the boys&rsquo; event with Tyler Jones winning in 21:03.56.Jon Mulkeen and Athletics Australia for the IAAF

Teenage sprinter Jack Hale stunned his opponents at the Australian All Schools Championships in Adelaide on Saturday (6) after winning the 100m in a wind-assisted 10.13, the fastest time ever recorded under any conditions by a youth athlete.

Australian youth Hale runs wind-assisted 10.13 in Adelaide

Green and gold will certainly be on display in the Chinese city of Nanjing at the second edition of the Youth Olympics Games, with the athletics programme held between 20-26 August.Australia will be represented in the track and field events by an impressive 20 team members. Among those hoping to compliment the gold on their uniforms with a gold-medal performance are two natives of New South Wales, hammer thrower Alexandra Hulley and hurdler Nicholas Andrews.Last year, Hulley won the hammer at the 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival with a record throw of 62.04m. The effort secured her a spot on the team for the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships where she placed ninth.The 17-year-old’s progression in the hammer has been truly impressive. Her relationship with the discipline began in year seven, when a teacher at her school athletics carnival suggested she’d be good at it.After just three months of serious training, she was already winning medals.“'I didn’t really know what hammer throw was before I got asked to do it,” said Hulley.“So when I became good really quickly, I didn't know, I just thought that's what everyone does. Now, when it's on a world scale, I see how I've improved.”That improvement has continued at a dizzying pace in 2014. Hulley pushed her official personal best with the 3kg hammer to 68.75m in March, a throw that ranks behind only Hungary's Zsofia Bacskay on this year's world youth list.The best may be yet to come in Nanjing. On 2 August, Hulley tweeted: “Massive PB 70.26m!” She followed that up the next day with: “Having the best lead up I could have into the Youth Olympic Games!”The hammer thrower professes a preference for larger meetings, where she isn't automatically saddled with the pressure of being the favourite. That dovetails nicely with the Youth Olympic Games, an experience Hulley is obviously eagerly anticipating.“It is exciting to be in a team environment and live together, but it is also important to focus on performing well and not get too caught up in the excitement and atmosphere,” said Hulley. “The big differences will be: the event is overseas, overcoming the cultural differences, the size of the crowd and the number of competitors in my event.”Andrews hoping to follow in footsteps of mentorAndrews figures to be one of the top competitors in his event, the 110m hurdles, thanks to a strong summer leading up to the Youth Olympic Games. The 17-year-old who is targeting a place on the 2020 senior Olympic squad set his personal best at 13.45 in May. He followed up that performance by winning the 2014 Down Under Championships on the Gold Coast of Australia in July.Andrews' time of 13.96 broke a decade-old meet record. The win added to his list of career accomplishments that includes this year's New South Wales regional and Australian junior national championships. The Down Under Championships was a banner event for the hurdlers, as training partner and Youth Olympic Games teammate Rachel Pace clocked a 13.65 in a preliminary run in the 100m hurdles, besting the previous record of 14.09 set by Olympic champion Sally Pearson in 2002.“Coming out of the blocks I felt really good because it was a thousand times better than my start in the heats,” said Andrews.“In the final part of my race I was focused on not backing off, so I pumped my arms harder to keep my pace up.”Andrews knows that pace will have to remain high if is to reach his goals at the Youth Olympic Games.“I was really happy with my time, I am where I need to be in the months before the Youth Olympics,” said Andrews.“My training so far has paid off and I have worked on my main weaknesses, meaning that I can now focus on smaller technical faults in my race.”Andrews will be able to rely on a voice of experience in improving those little things in his race because he has been working with countryman Nicholas Hough, the gold medallist in the event at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore in 2010.Hough brought home one of five medals earned by the Australian athletics team and the only gold. Two years later, Hough came away with a silver medal from the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona.“Having Nick Hough is a great person to look upon; we've been in the exact same steps, so I know exactly what I have to be doing,” said Andrews. “I've just seen what he's done, so I can mirror image and do the exact same thing.”While a repeat performance in the 110m hurdles at the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing would be a great result for Australia and Andrews, this year's entry in the Youth Olympic Games is also looking forward to experiences off the track.“This is my first overseas meeting, and what I’m looking forward to most is just seeing hurdlers from around the world who share my passion,” said Andrews. “It will feel good just to know where I sort of am in the world.”Will Seymour for the IAAF

Green and gold will certainly be on display in the Chinese city of Nanjing at the second edition of the Youth Olympics Games, with the athletics programme held between 20-26 August.

Shot put star Bukowiecki goes long at Polish U20 Championships

Australian youth Hale runs wind-assisted 10.13 in Adelaide

Hulley and Andrews lead large Australian squad to Nanjing