Looking ahead to the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, we're highlighting the rise of a new generation, 10 exciting prospects under the age of 21 who are set to become stars of the sport over the next few years.
The series began last week with Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, US sprinter Sydney McLaughlin, Ethiopian distance runner Selemon Barega, Jamaican sprinter Briana Williams and Cuban long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarria.
The series continues this week. Having profiled Bahraini sprinter Salwa Eid Naser and Kenyan distance runner Rhonex Kipruto, today it&rsquo;s the turn of Ukrainian heptathlete Alina Shukh.
<h3> Profile: <a href="https://www.iaaf.org/athletes/athlete=280889" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alina Shukh</a></h3>
Country: Ukraine Events: heptathlon, javelin Born: 12 February 1999 Coach: Maya and Anatoliy Shukh Social media: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/alinashukh/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@alinashukh</a> (Instagram)
 Alina Shukh is spoilt for choice.
Not only does she possess sufficient all-round talent to challenge for major honours in the heptathlon, she also happens to be one of the best javelin throwers in the world.
Ever since her early days in the sport, Shukh has divided her time between all event groups but has amassed more accolades in the javelin than in any other individual discipline.
She first made an impression in 2014 when, at the age of 15, she scored 5713 in the heptathlon, the best mark in the world that year with the U18 implements. She improved to 6039 in 2015 and was touted as a medal favourite ahead of the IAAF World U18 Championships in Cali.
Some below-par marks in the high jump and shot put proved costly and ultimately took her out of gold medal contention, but she battled to the end and produced a javelin PB of 54.57m in the penultimate heptathlon discipline &ndash; a mark that would have been competitive in the individual event final in the Colombian city.
Shukh earned the bronze medal in Cali but ended her season on a high when scoring a lifetime best of 6079 to once again top the end-of-year world U18 list.
She went undefeated in the heptathlon in 2016, scoring 6099 with the senior implements and then winning the European U18 title with a world U18 best of 6186. She contested the javelin at those championships and finished sixth, while her high jump PB of 1.92m, set earlier in the year in Lutsk, sent her to the top of the 2016 world U18 list.
Shukh moved up another level in 2017, setting a world indoor U20 record of 4542 in the pentathlon and finishing 11th at the European Indoor Championships one month later. Now an U20 athlete and competing with senior implements, all four of her outdoor heptathlons were in excess of 6000 points, culminating with a national U20 record of 6381 to win the European U20 title in Grosseto.
After a promising start to her 2018 season, Shukh decided to double up at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere by contesting the javelin and heptathlon. She was stunned to wind up the winner of the javelin with a season&rsquo;s best of 55.95m, but her championship experience was bittersweet as she was forced to withdraw from the heptathlon two days later after picking up an injury. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Better known as a heptathlete, Alina Shukh impressed by taking gold in the individual javelin final She will be back on track for her favourite event in a few hours<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IAAFworlds?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IAAFworlds</a> <a href="https://t.co/VidQBZ2BCx">pic.twitter.com/VidQBZ2BCx</a>
&mdash; IAAF (@iaaforg) <a href="https://twitter.com/iaaforg/status/1017159364321345536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 11, 2018</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async=""></script>

Fortunately her injury wasn&rsquo;t too severe and she was back in action four weeks later at the European Championships in Berlin.
Next year marks Shukh&rsquo;s first season as a senior. Heptathlon greats such as Jessica Ennis-Hill and Nafissatou Thiam have shown that the transition from U20 to senior isn&rsquo;t always seamless, but Shukh appears to have all the attributes to challenge for major titles &ndash; either in the heptathlon or the javelin. Or both.
<h3> 10 facts about Shukh</h3>
1. She is coached by her parents Her mother, Maya, has coached Shukh since her early days in the sport. Her father, Anatoliy, recently joined her coaching set-up.
2. Her siblings are heavily involved in sport. Younger brother Ilya does combined events while older sister Uliana is a presenter on a Ukrainian sports TV channel.
3. She is already one of the best ever javelin throwers in heptathlon history. Shukh threw 55.95m in the javelin en route to winning the heptathlon at the European Team Championships in 2017. Only nine other women in history have ever thrown the javelin farther within a heptathlon. Shukh&rsquo;s lifetime best, set in an individual competition, is 56.54m.
4. Her javelin prowess puts her in esteemed company. Two-time Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova, 1984 Olympic champion Tessa Sanderson, two-time African Games champion Justine Robbeson and European silver medallist Nikola Ogrodnikova all started out in the heptathlon before focusing on the javelin. Shukh is still happy to devote most of her time to the heptathlon, but it&rsquo;s good to have a back-up plan.
5. If she wasn&rsquo;t an athlete&hellip; &ldquo;I&rsquo;d play snooker,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Just joking. I like volleyball and other team sports like basketball.&rdquo;
6. Her pentathlon record shook up the record books. Shukh broke the world U20 indoor pentathlon record in Tallinn in 2017 with 4542, adding seven points to the mark set by Swedish superstar Carolina Kluft back in 2002.
7. &hellip;but her world U20 record is lower than her personal best. One week before her record-breaking performance, Shukh scored 4550 which couldn&rsquo;t be ratified as a record as there was no post-competition doping control. Similarly, Nafissatou Thiam (4558) and Kendell Williams (4635) posted superior scores as an U20 athlete but their marks could also not be ratified.
8. Heavy snow across Europe meant many athletes faced difficulties making it to the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018, but Shukh&rsquo;s journey was more arduous than most. She spent 36 hours travelling, 20 of which were spent at Amsterdam Airport. She also had four flights cancelled and her luggage got lost. She finally arrived in Birmingham just a matter of hours before the pentathlon was due to start.
9. She is part of an exciting group of up-and-coming combined eventers So far in her U20 career Shukh has already enjoyed some epic duels with the likes of 2015 world U18 champion Geraldine Ruckstuhl, 2016 world U20 champion Sarah Lagger and world U20 champion Niamh Emerson. All four of those have scored in excess of 6200 points and feature in the top 15 on the world U20 heptathlon all-time list. The likes of world U18 champion Maria Vicente and 2016 world U20 silver medallist Adriana Rodriguez add even greater depth to the crop, meaning fans will likely be treated to some spectacular tussles in years to come.
10. She&rsquo;s in it for the long haul &ldquo;I love sport,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;All my family and friends are involved in sport. I hope I&rsquo;ll have a long career in athletics.&rdquo;
<h3> World U20 all-time top 10, pentathlon</h3>
4635 Kendell Williams (USA) Albuquerque 2014 4558 Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) Gent 2013 4550 Alina Shukh (UKR) Zaporizhzhya 2017 4535 Carolina Kluft (SWE) Vienna 2002 4531 Sofia Linde (SWE) Gothenburg 2013 4527 Morgan Lake (GBR) Prague 2015 4526 Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) Cardiff 2012 4409 Yana Panteleyeva (RUS) Krasnodar 2007 4389 Bianca Salming (SWE) Belgrade 2017 4385 Adrianna Sulek (POL) Torun 2018
<h3>World U20 all-time top 10, heptathlon</h3>
6542 Carolina Kluft (SWE) Munich 2002 6465 Sibylle Thiele (GDR) Schwechat 1983 6436 Sabine Braun (GER) Mannheim 1984 6428 Svetla Dimitrova-Pishtikova (BUL) Sofia 1989 6403 Emilia Dimitrova (BUL) Moscow 1986 6381 Alina Shukh (UKR) Grosseto 2017 6357 Geraldine Ruckstuhl (SUI) Grosseto 2017 6298 Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) Rieti 2013 6267 Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) London 2012 6255 Larisa Turchinskaya-Nikitina (URS) Kiev 1984

Looking ahead to the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, we're highlighting the rise of a new generation, 10 exciting prospects under the age of 21 who are set to become stars of the sport over the next few years.

Gen 10: all-round talent Alina Shukh

In one of the greatest U20 heptathlon competitions in history, Ukraine&rsquo;s Alina Shukh beat arch rival Geraldine Ruckstuhl to win the European U20 title by the narrow margin of 24 points, scoring a national U20 record of 6381 in Grosseto on Friday (21).
Shukh, the European U18 champion, led after the high jump and shot put, having produced the best marks of the day in those events with 1.87m and 13.87m, but she was bumped down to third after the 200m as Ruckstuhl led overnight with 3646.
Shukh took back the lead after the first event of the second day, leaping a wind-assisted 6.33m (3.2m/s) in the long jump. Then, in a sensational javelin competition, Shukh and Ruckstuhl threw 54.51m and 54.32m respectively, distances which would been enough to take the silver and the bronze medal in the individual discipline.
The pair were head and shoulders above their rivals going into the final event and it seemed as though Ruckstuhl would not be able to make up the 37-point deficit on Shukh as the Swiss athlete had the slower 800m PB.
But Ruckstuhl went all-out and won the two-lap event, improving her personal best by four seconds to 2:12.56 to beat Niamh Emerson from Great Britain (2:12.60) and Shukh (2:13.52). Ultimately Shukh had done just enough to hold on to the gold medal, scoring 6381 to move up to sixth on the world U20 all-time list. Ruckstuhl scored a senior Swiss record of 6357 and now sits just one place behind Shukh on the world U20 all-time list.
As a sign of the quality of the competition, Austria&rsquo;s Sarah Lagger added 123 points to the PB she set when winning the world U20 title last year, but here it was only good enough for the bronze medal. Emerson also surpassed 6000 points in fourth with 6013, but missed out on a medal.
In a superb men&rsquo;s high jump competition, Maksim Nedasekau first equalled Vladimir Yashchenko&rsquo;s championship record of 2.30m before improving it with a third-time 2.33m clearance. Ukraine&rsquo;s Dmitro Nikitin won the fight for second place with 2.28m on countback over Great Britain&rsquo;s Tom Gale.
Home star Filippo Tortu grabbed the headlines in the second day of the championships. Battling a -4.3m/s headwind, the world U20 silver medallist won the 100m in 10.73 to become the first Italian sprinter in history to win the European U20 title over this distance.
Tortu, who earlier this season clocked PBs of 10.15 and 20.34 before picking up a minor ankle injury, beat Finland&rsquo;s Samuel Purola (10.79) and Great Britain&rsquo;s Oliver Bromby (10.88).
&ldquo;I had a tough summer with the final school exams and the recovery from the injury but these experiences have made me a more mature athlete,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Before the race, I wasn&rsquo;t thinking about anything. The only important thing wasn&rsquo;t the time but the win. I am happy that I won the title in front of my entire family.&rdquo;
Tortu&rsquo;s good friend Vladimir Aceti provided the second joy for the enthusiastic Italian fans by winning the men&rsquo;s 400m in a national U20 record of 45.92, becoming the first Italian U20 sprinter to cover the distance within 46 seconds.
Poland&rsquo;s Tymoteusz Zimny finished second with a personal best of 46.04 ahead of Belgium&rsquo;s Jonathan Sacoor (46.23).
&ldquo;I ran a great race,&rdquo; said Aceti, who was born in Russia near the border with Finland but was adopted by a Northern Italian family at the age of five. &ldquo;What happened is simply extraordinary. I realised that I could win only in the final metres. I really wanted this record and I am happy that I broke it in the most important competition of the year.&rdquo;
Greek sensation Miltiades Tentoglou leapt to 8.07m in each of his first two attempts to win the long jump title. Pole Jakub Andrzejczak also jumped beyond eight metres with 8.02m.
&ldquo;I was expecting this gold medal because I was the favourite today, but I would have preferred to jump farther,&rdquo; said Tentoglou, who jumped 8.30m earlier this year. &ldquo;The important thing was to win.&rdquo;
Ireland&rsquo;s Gina Akpe Moses followed up a silver medal at the European U18 Championships in Tbilisi last year with a gold medal in Grosseto in 11.71, beating Germany&rsquo;s Kesha Kwadwo by 0.04.
Anastasiya Bryzhina, the daughter of 1988 Olympic 400m champion Olga Bryzhina, triumphed in the women&rsquo;s 400m in 52.01 ahead of Romania&rsquo;s Andrea Miklos (52.31).
On what proved to be a memorable afternoon for Swiss athletics, European U20 leader Jason Joseph lived up to his pre-event favourite role to clinch the 110m hurdles final with 13.41 ahead of Great Britain&rsquo;s Robert Sakala (13.48) and Spain&rsquo;s Luis Salort (13.48).
Less than two hours later, Joseph&rsquo;s Swiss teammate Delia Sclabas won the women&rsquo;s 3000m in 9:10.13. Sclabas beat France&rsquo;s Mathilde Senechal (9:20.05) and Italian rising star Nadia Battocletti, who set a lifetime best of 9:24.01.
Great Britain scored an impressive 200m double, replicating the feat achieved four years earlier by Dina Asher-Smith and Nethaneel Mitchell Blake. This time Maya Bruney won the women&rsquo;s title with a European U20 lead of 23.04, while Toby Harries completed the British triumph by winning the men&rsquo;s event with a PB of 20.81, edging his compatriot Jona Efoloko by 0.11.
The British Super Saturday was also highlighted by a 1-2 finish in the women&rsquo;s 800m, where Khahisa Mhlanga edged out Ellie Baker in a close sprint with 2:06.96 to 2:06.01.
Jake Heyward won a dramatic and tactical men&rsquo;s 1500m final in 3:56.73, holding off Belgium&rsquo;s Dries De Smet (3:56.98). Norway&rsquo;s pre-event favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen fell with 300 metres to go and lost valuable ground on his rivals, but got back up and finished eighth.
Ingebrigtsen, who earlier this year become the first 16-year-old to run a mile within four minutes, made up for the disappointment of losing the 1500m by returning to the track two-and-a-half hours later to win the 5000m in 14:41.67.
&ldquo;I was very disappointed with what happened [in the 1500m],&rdquo; said Ingebrigtsen, who will also contest tomorrow&rsquo;s steeplechase final. &ldquo;I had to reset for the 5000m final two hours later. I didn&rsquo;t want to give up; my parents and my girlfriend were here to support me. This win means a lot for me.&rdquo;
Ukraine&rsquo;s Hlib Piskunov set three championship records in the men&rsquo;s hammer with 80.52m in the first round, 81.48m in the third and 81.75m on his final throw, while Poland&rsquo;s Cyprian Mrzyglod set a national U20 record of 80.52m to win the men&rsquo;s javelin.
Solene Ndama continued France&rsquo;s proud sprint hurdling tradition by winning the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles, setting a PB of 13.15 to beat pre-event favourite Alicia Barrett of Great Britain (13.28).
In an exciting triple jump final, Violetta Skvartsova of Belarus saved her best for last as she sailed out to a wind-assisted 14.21m to regain the lead from Ilionis Guillame of France. Guillame settled for silver with 13.97m.
Germany&rsquo;s Julia Ritter set a world U20 lead of 17.24m to clinch a dramatic win in the women&rsquo;s shot put. She had led from the first round but Jorinde Van Klinken of the Netherlands jumped into pole position with her last-round throw of 16.89m. Ritter then responded with the final throw of the competition, throwing 17.24m.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

In one of the greatest U20 heptathlon competitions in history, Ukraine’s Alina Shukh beat arch rival Geraldine Ruckstuhl to win the European U20 title by the narrow margin of 24 points, scoring a national U20 record of 6381 in Grosseto on Friday (21).

Shukh wins epic heptathlon duel at European U20 Championships

Janek Oiglane from Estonia moved from third after day one to the overall title to win the super league division of the European Combined Events Team Championships, and IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, in Tallinn on Sunday (2).
The 23-year-old totalled a lifetime best of 8170 to beat Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine, the day one leader, who tallied 7958.
Kasyanov maintained his lead after the 110m hurdles where he clocked 13.98, the day's fastest, but Oiglane applied the pressure from the outset. He moved up to second after a 14.72 run in the hurdles, and narrowed the gap to 193 points after the discus where he reached 42.98m, the second best of the competition.
Kasyanov, who threw 41.42m, topped 4.60m in the pole vault to hold on to his lead but the result of the round was produced by Oiglane who added a whopping 20 centimetres to his personal best with a 5.10m clearance, cutting the Ukrainian's lead to just 42 points.
Oiglane took command after the javelin where he threw 68.79m, more than seven metres better than the rest of the field, and nearly 20 metres better than Kasyanov, whose best was just 49.93m.
Oiglane began the 1500m with a virtually insurmountable 241-point lead. There, he clocked a modest 4:41.53 to finish within a few seconds of Kasyanov, who clocked 4:36.83 to pad his runner-up finish.
Estonian Karl Robert Saluri, second after day one, hung on to finish third with 7837.
<h3>Shukh improves to 6208</h3>
In the heptathlon, Alina Shukh bettered overnight leader Geraldine Ruckstuhl in each of the second day's three events to take the title with 6208. In this battle of rising teenage stars &ndash; Shukh is 18, Ruckstuhl 19&nbsp;&ndash; the Ukrainian won by 74 points, adding 102 points to her previous career best of 6106 set in Gotzis in late May.
Shukh opened the day with a 6.10m best in the long jump, the third best of the competition, before taking control of the competition after a huge 55.95m effort in the javelin to take control of the competition. She capped the day with a 2:12.61 run in the 800m, the third fastest on the day and nearly five second ahead of Ruckstuhl.
Grit Sadeiko of Estonia, third after the first day, maintained that position, tallying 5958. Ellen Sprunger of Switzerland, who produced a 6.24m leap in the long jump, the day's longest, was fourth with 5813.
<h3>Urena and&nbsp;Broersen prevail in first division</h3>
Spain's Jorge Urena notched a home victory in the first league decathlon in the northeastern city of Monzon.
The leader after day one, Urena held his lead throughout the second day en route to an 8121 score, adding 136 points to his previous lifetime best set in Gotzis last year.
Swede Marcus Nilsson was second with 7987 with Bas Markies of the Netherlands, who was second after day one, third with 7624.
In the heptathlon, Nadine Broersen took a comfortable victory with a 6326 score, a season's best.
Eliska Klucinova, the day one leader, finished second with 6003. Lecabela Quaresma of Portugal was third, tallying 5861.
<h3>Roe and&nbsp;Slanickova take second league crowns</h3>
In the second league, the individual titles went to Norway's Martin Roe and Lucia Slanickova of Slovakia.
Roe, the overnight leader, tallied 8144 points to dominate the competition, topping teammate Lars Rise, who scored 7448.
It was a lifetime best for the 25-year-old Roe, who bettered his previous best by 269 points.
Slanickova, third after day one, reached 6.00m in the long jump, 44.02m in the javelin and clocked 2:16.39 in the 800m to up her total to 5816, to edge 2004 Olympic silver medallist Austra Skujyte of Lithuania, who tallied 5784. Teenager Kate O'Connor of Ireland was a distant third with 5632.
&nbsp;Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

Janek Oiglane from Estonia moved from third after day one to the overall title to win the super league division of the European Combined Events Team Championships, and IAAF Combined Events Challenge meeting, in Tallinn on Sunday (2).

Oiglane and Shukh take European Super League Combined Events titles in Tallinn

The following world records have recently been ratified...
<h3>World U20 indoor records</h3>
Men's triple jump: 17.20m Melvin Raffin (FRA) Belgrade 3 Mar 17 Previous: 17.14m Volker Mai (GDR) Pireas 2 Mar 85
Women's pentathlon: 4542 (8.98, 1.89m, 13.81m, 6.12m, 2:16.84) Alina Shukh (UKR) Tallinn 4 Feb 17 Previous: 4535 Carolina Kluft (SWE) Vienna 1 Mar 02
IAAF

The following world records have recently been ratified...

World records ratified

Renaud Lavillenie will need to be close to his best form to win a record fifth successive European indoor pole vault title in Belgrade next month as Piotr Lisek confirmed his terrific early season shape in Potsdam, becoming the 10th vaulter in history to clear six metres indoors.
In a competition staged on a makeshift runway inside the Sterncenter Shopping Centre on Saturday (4), Lisek cleared 5.73m on his second attempt to seal the competition from Croatia&rsquo;s Ivan Horvat before putting on a one-man demonstration for the crowd at the 18th edition of the event.
After clearing 5.83m on his second try, Lisek initially improved his Polish record and world-leading mark by one centimetre to 5.93m before breaking new ground with a 6.00m clearance on his second attempt.
In doing so, Lisek moves to joint sixth on the world indoor all-time list, equal with world champion Shawn Barber, 1992 and 1996 Olympic champions Maksim Tarasov and Jean Galfione and German indoor record-holder Danny Ecker.
There was a German win in the women&rsquo;s event staged on Friday night; Annika Roloff cleared an indoor lifetime best of 4.51m to take the plaudits.
<h3>Barber and Morris triumph in Clermont-Ferrand</h3>
Lisek couldn&rsquo;t quite make it two wins in as many evenings as the Pole had to settle for second at the All Star Perche in Clermont-Ferrand on Sunday (5).
Shawn Barber cleared a season&rsquo;s best of 5.83m on his first attempt to claim the win while Lisek, who only arrived in the French city on the morning of the competition, tied Olympic champion Thiago Braz for second at 5.71m. Braz passed at 5.83m before three unsuccessful attempts at a would-be winning height of 5.88m.
Sandi Morris turned the tables on Olympic champion Ekaterini Stefanidi with a 4.71m clearance to the Greek&rsquo;s 4.61m. They will also go head-to-head at the Millrose Games in New York next weekend.
At a high school meeting in Baton Rouge, world U18 pole vault champion Armand Duplantis cleared a world indoor U20 record and world age-17 best of 5.72m to secure the qualifying standard for the IAAF World Championships London 2017.
Duplantis still has two years left in the junior ranks to approach the outright world U20 pole vault record jointly held by Maksim Tarasov and Raphael Holzdeppe at 5.80m.
<h3>Collins rolls back the years in Mondeville</h3>
Kim Collins turns 41 in April but the 2003 world 100m champion had the beating of his younger rivals in a good quality 60m at the Meeting de Mondeville on Saturday evening.
After finishing second in Dusseldorf midweek, Collins broke the tape first in 6.52 to defeat NCAA indoor champion Ronnie Baker (6.54) and Sean Safo-Antwi (6.59).
Collins&rsquo; time was also a world age-40 best and he moves to second on the 2017 world indoor list behind Christian Coleman, who ran a world-leading 6.51 in Blacksburg, Virginia on Friday (3).
There was also a world-leading 400m mark in Magglingen, Switzerland on Sunday with European 400m hurdles bronze medallist Lea Sprunger improving her outright lifetime best from 52.24 to 51.46. Sprunger, who only moved to the 400m hurdles in 2015, also clocked 23.06 over 200m on Saturday.
<h3>World leads for Wilson and Butchart in New York</h3>
World indoor 800m silver medallist Ajee&rsquo; Wilson took almost one second off her world-leading 600m mark at the Armory Track Invitational in New York on Saturday.
Wilson stopped the clock at 1:24.28 to move to fourth on the world indoor all-time list while world U20 800m champion Sammy Watson, 17, improved to 1:27.13.
Fresh from breaking the Scottish 3000m record with 7:42.97 in Boston last weekend, Olympic 5000m finalist Andrew Butchart won the mile in another outright lifetime best and world-leading time of 3:54.23.
And not only does it constitute another overall lifetime best by seven seconds, Butchart&rsquo;s en route 1500m time of 3:37.58 also eclipses Elijah Manangoi&rsquo;s world lead of 3:37.62 from Dusseldorf.
At the Camel City Invitational in Winston-Salem on Saturday, Olympic 5000m silver medallist Paul Chelimo produced a final circuit of 26.95 to win the 3000m in 7:45.49 while world 800m silver medallist Melissa Bishop opened her season with a gun-to-tape 2:02.49 win.
<h3>Shukh approaches world U20 record in Tallinn</h3>
Eight days after setting a world-leading pentathlon score and pending world indoor U20 record of 4550 in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine&rsquo;s Alina Shukh nearly surpassed that mark at the International Combined Events Meeting in Tallinn on Saturday.
Shukh, 17, scored 4542 to win by more than 200 points from fellow teenager Bianca Salming from Sweden. The highlight of her series was a 1.89m indoor lifetime best in the high jump.
Kristjan Rosenberg won the heptathlon on home soil with a lifetime best of 5986.
At the 18th Hustopece High Jump meeting on Saturday, 2009 world bronze medallist Sylwester Bednarek equalled the world lead with 2.30m on his first attempt to defeat Mexico's Edgar Rivera while 2014 world U20 heptathlon and high jump champion Morgan Lake cleared 1.92m to defeat Ukraine's Yulia Levchenko in a jump-off.
Steven Mills for the IAAF

Renaud Lavillenie will need to be close to his best form to win a record fifth successive European indoor pole vault title in Belgrade next month as Piotr Lisek confirmed his terrific early season shape in Potsdam, becoming the 10th vaulter in history to clear six metres indoors.

Lisek joins the six-metre club in Potsdam – indoor round-up

Alina Shukh of Ukraine broke the world U20 indoor record* in the pentathlon on Friday (27), tallying 4550 points at the national indoor team championships in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine.
The 17-year-old improved the previous mark of 4535 set by Carolina Kl&uuml;ft of Sweden in Vienna in 2002.
The world U18 heptathlon bronze medallist set three indoor personal bests in Zaporizhzhya: 8.85 in the 60m hurdles, 1.88m in the high jump and 14.27m in the shot put. Her performance also included a 6.04m leap in the long jump before finishing the day with a 2:17.69 run in the 800m.
&ldquo;My mother congratulated me after finish, but at first I didn&rsquo;t understand what&rsquo;s happened," said Shukh, who is coached by her mother Maia. "I did not even imagine that it was a record. Before the competition, I just wanted to show the good result.
"I like to compete in Zaporizhzhya. I like the arena, support, people and competitions here. Last year I set a national U20 indoor record here, now it was a world U20 indoor record."
In the years since Kluft set the previous record of 4535, two other athletes have surpassed that mark but neither performance was ratified. Nafi Thiam scored 4558 in 2013, while Kendell Williams scored 4635 one year later.
Shukh's 4354 tally last year elevated her to ninth on the world U20 all-time list. Shukh also won the European youth heptathlon title in 2016 with 6186, a world U18 best. Meanwhile, she improved to 6099 with the standard implements, the best performance by a U20 athlete last season.
Shukh, who will celebrate her 18th birthday on 12 February, will compete next at the combined events meeting in Lasnam&auml;e, Estonia, on 3-4 February and then at the Ukrainian indoor championships on 17-19 February in Sumy. She is also hoping to compete at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March.
"I want to compete there very much, it&rsquo;s really very important for me," she said. "It should be a great experience I really need."
Ukrainian Athletics Federation for the IAAF
*pending the usual ratification procedures

Alina Shukh of Ukraine broke the world U20 indoor record in the pentathlon on Friday (27), tallying 4550 points at the national indoor team championships in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine.

Shukh breaks world U20 indoor pentathlon record

Among a plethora of world-leading U18 performances at the inaugural European Youth Championships, the undoubted highlight was Alina Shukh&rsquo;s heptathlon world U18 best at the four-day event in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, which ended on Sunday (17).
Following her score of 6079 set last year, and some stunning performances in individual disciplines this summer, there were high hopes that Shukh could string together enough points across the seven events to make that mark history.
However, there was no room for faltering because there was the likely prospect that she would be challenged hard by Austria&rsquo;s Sarah Lagger, who beat her to the silver medal when Shukh had to settle for the bronze at the IAAF World Youth Championships Cali 2015.
In the end, just 11 points divided the pair as Shukh scored 6186 while Lagger finished second with 6175.
Both athletes surpassed the previous best ever mark in the heptathlon with youth implements, which belonged to Shukh at 6079. But Shukh's score will also count as an outright world U18 best as it is higher than the 6185 scored by China's Shen Shengfei in the senior heptathlon back in 1997.
Shukh produced the best performance of the first day with a 1.88m high jump to move into the lead after two events, and she continued in front with a 14.85m shot put. But Lagger clawed back the gap with a big personal best in the shot with 15.06m before finishing the first day with 24.92 in the 200m to finish nearly two seconds up on Shukh.
Lagger held pole position overnight with 3623, just ahead of Shukh with 3588, but the latter regained the lead by 30 points with a 50.04m throw in the javelin.
Lagger put in a heroic effort in the 800m to improve her PB by two seconds to 2:13.56 but Shukh did just enough to hold on to triumph after running 2:14.89.
<h3>Karalis looks to go higher in Bydgoszcz</h3>
Another world U18 best almost fell in the penultimate event to be completed when Greece&rsquo;s Emmanouil Karalis had a close third attempt at 5.56m, a one-centimetre improvement on the mark he vaulted at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Ostrava in May.
Although he failed at that height, he was nevertheless a convincing winner, flawless up to and including his winning height of 5.45m, with Germany&rsquo;s Bo Kanda Lia Baehere equalling his personal best to take the silver with 5.30m.
Karalis, like a number of winners in Tbilisi, will now make the trip halfway across Europe to compete at the IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016 this coming week.
Among the other winners trying to succeed at back-to-back championships will be the Moldovan thrower Alexandra Emilianov.
A winner of the world U18 title in Cali last summer, she added more than two metres to her discus best when she threw a world-U18-leading 58.09m on Friday, the best throw by a European girl since 1987.
For good measure, she took the shot title on Saturday, adding exactly a metre to her shot best with a world-U18-leading effort of 18.50m in the fourth round of what many consider her &lsquo;second event&rsquo;.
Another double in the girls&rsquo; events was notched up by the prodigiously talented 15-year-old Swiss runner Delia Sclabas, who will still be eligible to compete at the IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017.
On Friday, in the girls&rsquo; 3000m, Sclabas slashed her best by more than seven seconds to win in 9:23.44 after a devastating change of gears over the final 200 metres.
In the 1500m on Sunday, she waited a little longer but outsprinted the prohibitive favourite, Great Britain&rsquo;s Sabrina Sinha, down the home straight before stopping the clock in another personal best of 4:22.51, with the Briton second in 4:23.10.
<h3>Havryliuk gets the Midas touch</h3>
Myhailo Havryliuk had to settle for the silver medal in Cali last summer but the Ukrainian went one better in Tbilisi, winning the hammer with a lifetime best and world-U18-leading mark of 82.26m to move up to 10th on the world U18 all-time list.
Another revision in the U18 all-time lists came in a high-quality girls&rsquo; javelin which saw Norway&rsquo;s Arianne Duarte Morais throw a European U18 best and world-U18leading 60.89m, which also moved her up to third place on the world U18 all-time list for the 500g implement which has been in use since 2013.
Portugal&rsquo;s Marisa Carvalho ran 13.07 in her 100m hurdles semi-final for a European U18 best, which earned her fifth place on the world U18 all-time list.
Unfortunately, Carvalho, who was later in the championships to get a bronze medal in the long jump, hit several hurdles midway through the final and eventually stumbled home last as a surprise victory went to Italy&rsquo;s Desola Oki in 13:30.
Five other world-leading U18 marks were set: Germany&rsquo;s Lukas Mihota twice improved his personal best and won the boys&rsquo; high jump with 2.18m, Greece&rsquo;s Odissefs Mouzenidis &ndash; another winner who will compete in Bydgoszcz &ndash; improved his personal best by 10 centimetres to win the shot put with 21.51m while Germany&rsquo;s Manuel Wagner finished first in an enthralling boys&rsquo; decathlon with 7382.
In the girls' events, Denmark&rsquo;s Anna Mark Helwigh defied conditions during the 2000m steeplechase which saw the temperatures soar to over 30C and improved her own personal best and world-U18-leading mark by more than six seconds when she romped away from her rivals with two laps to go before winning in 6:34.52. Turkey&rsquo;s Meryem Bekmez won the first gold medal of the championships on the opening morning when taking the girls&rsquo; 5000m race walk title in 22:50.22.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Among a plethora of world-leading U18 performances at the inaugural European Youth Championships, the undoubted highlight was Alina Shukh’s heptathlon world U18 best at the four-day event in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, which ended on Sunday (17).

Shukh's world U18 heptathlon best highlights European Youth Championships

Rising star Maryna Bekh confirmed her vast potential by soaring out to&nbsp;6.93m to win the women's long jump at the Ukrainian Championships in Lutsk, a four-day competition which came to an end on Sunday (19).
Bekh, the European junior bronze medallist in 2013 and world junior finalist in 2014, added 15cm to her previous personal best of 6.78m, which she set at the age of 16 back in 2013.
Now 20, she posted her breakthrough effort in the second round of Friday&rsquo;s competition, her leap&nbsp;of 6.93m a personal best and Olympic standard.&nbsp;She confirmed that she is in the greatest shape of her career by going out to 6.80m in the fourth round and 6.88m in the fifth, the latter aided by a +3.0m/s wind.
&ldquo;We were very focused preparing for the Olympic year,&rdquo; said Bekh, explaining her breakthrough performance. &ldquo;All my training velocity, power and lifting tests grew considerably. I increased my approach from 17 to 19 steps and it was very important to find new rhythm and to cope with scaled-up speed on the board.&rdquo;
Bekh also believes that there is more to come.
&ldquo;Certainly I would like to overcome the seven-metre mark as soon as possible but it&rsquo;s much more important to consolidate 6.80-6.90m jumps and then make another step further,&rdquo; said Bekh, who will compete at the European Championships in Amsterdam next month.&nbsp;
Two-time Paralympic Games champion in the F12 (visually impared) category, Oksana Zubkovska, surprised with second place, also posting an Olympic standard of 6.70m in her sixth attempt. The 34-year-old beat Anna Kornuta, who finished the competition with the same result after having only one successful jump in the first round.
On the men&rsquo;s side, Serhiy Nykyforov missed the Olympic standard by four centimetres despite winning the event with an 8.18m jump in the last round, an effort boosted by a 2.2m/s wind. Nevertheless, he achieved 8.11m in his first attempt with a legal wind to improve his outdoor PB by a massive 36cm.
Two more male long jumpers landed over the eight-metre mark. Taras Neledva was second with 8.11m (+3.0m/s) and 2008 Olympic triple jump finalist, Viktor Kuznetsov, leapt 8.05m for bronze.
Ruslana Tsykhotska jumped 14.41m to take gold in the women&rsquo;s triple jump but 2011 world champion Olha Saladukha, who already has the qualifying standard for Rio, missed the event while continuing her recovery from a back injury. &nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>Okuneva edges Levchenko in high jump</h3>
Yuliya Levchenko fought&nbsp;against a slight knee injury but was able to improve her personal best by three centimeres when clearing&nbsp;1.95m on her first attempt, the highest jump in the world by an U20 athlete this year.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz are my priority as that is my category&rsquo;s competition, but I really had the goal to reach Rio as well for my first experience as a senior Olympian," said Levchenko. "Now I&rsquo;m aiming to cure my knee injury and to be full healthy competing at the major events.&rdquo;
The teenager's jump was also a national U20 and U23 record but it wasn't good enough to take the title.
In spite of her great performance, Levchenko was beaten by the experienced Oksana Okuneva, who cleared 1.95m only on the&nbsp;third attempt but was then successful over 1.97m at the first try, equalling what was then the world-leading mark, before bringing the bar down three times at what would have been a personal best 2.00m.
Another&nbsp;young star to shine was 2015 world youth championships bronze medallist Alina Shukh, who in the absence of Ukraine's strongest female multi-eventers scored 6099 points in the women's heptathlon using senior implements to top the 2016 world U20&nbsp;list.
During the competition Shukh, 17,&nbsp;cleared 1.92m in the high jump and&nbsp;improved her personal bests in the long jump to 6.15m and in the javelin to 51.52m. She also clocked 14.72 for 100m hurdles, threw 12.94m in the shot put and finished with a&nbsp;2:17.68 800m.
In the throws, Nataliya Semenova ruled the women's discus field with a best of 62.41m, while Mykyta Nesterenko won the men's title with 59.88m. Hanna Hatsko-Fedusova threw 60.12m to win the women's javelin, with Dmytro Kosynskyy firing the spear 81.10m to win the men's event. Iryna Novozhylova confirmed her Rio standard in the women's hammer with a best throw of&nbsp;71.00m.
<h3>Relay women return to form</h3>
There were several strong&nbsp;performances in the women's sprints. All four members of Ukraine's 4x100m team which&nbsp;took bronze medals at the&nbsp;London 2012 Olympic Games&nbsp;confirmed their ambitions for Rio de Janeiro in the individual disciplines in Lutsk.&nbsp;
Nathaliya Pohrebnyak completed a golden&nbsp;double when winning 100m in 11.11, despite running into a 2.2m/s wind, and 200m in&nbsp;22.76. Mariya Ryemyen finished third in both finals with 11.50 and 23.45 respectively behind Olesya Povkh, who clocked 11.30 in the&nbsp;100m, and Yelizaveta Bryzgina, who ran 23.24 in 200m final.&nbsp;
"All the girls are drawing into relay practices," said the head coach of women's relay team, Kostyantyn Rurak. "Unfortunately, Khrystyna Stuy was injured at the Rome Diamond League but we hope for her recovery soon as we&rsquo;re full of ambition to shine again at the highest world level."
Serhiy Smelyk was fastest in the men's 200m with a winning time of 20.40.&nbsp;
Former world finalist Anna Titimets faced strong opposition in women's 400m hurdles from 2015 European U23 finalist Olena Kolesnychenko and semi-finalist Viktoriya Tkachuk, but repelled their challenge to win in&nbsp;55.00. Kolesnychenko booked her flight to Rio by finishing second in a&nbsp;personal best of 55.48, with Tkachuk third in&nbsp;55.96.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
In the women's 400m, the gold medal went to Olha Bibik in 51.69 ahead of Yuliya Olishevska, 51.70, and 2014&nbsp;European silver medallist Olha Zemlyak, who ran 51.89. Vitaliy Butrym clocked 45.85 to win the men's title over one lap of the track.
Nataliya Lupu broke&nbsp;two minutes for the first time this summer when taking second place&nbsp;in the 800m in&nbsp;1:59.70, but was well beaten by the 2014 European 1500m bronze medallist, Nataliya Pryshchepa, who set a personal best of 1:59.08.
Roman Yarko improved his personal best to 1:46.80 to win the men's 800m. Mariya Shatalova ran 9:44.25 to win the women's 3000m steeplechase, while Vadym Slobodenyuk clocked 8:36.68 to win the men's race.
Liudmyla Iakusheva for the IAAF

Rising star Maryna Bekh confirmed her vast potential by soaring out to 6.93m to win the women's long jump at the Ukrainian Championships in Lutsk, a four-day competition which came to an end on Sunday (19).

Bekh long jumps 6.93m at Ukrainian Championships 

With an astonishing comeback on the second day of competition, Switzerland&rsquo;s Geraldine Ruckstuhl moved from sixth to first and set a championship record of 6037 to take gold in a thrilling finale to the girls&rsquo; heptathlon at the IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 on Saturday night (18). &nbsp;In the end, no one was more surprised with the result than Ruckstuhl herself. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t believe it,&rdquo; she said after the 800m, wiping tears from her eyes. &ldquo;Coming into this championship, third place was the best I could imagine. First: I can&rsquo;t believe.&rdquo;The Swiss 17-year-old had every reason to be surprised. Overnight, she trailed Cuban leader Adriana Rodriguez by 176 points and pre-event favourite Sarah Lagger of Austria by 35 points. Her task, if not quite impossible, certainly looked improbable. In the &nbsp;long jump on Saturday morning, Lagger propelled herself up to second place overall with a personal best of 6.21m, which left her 188 points clear of Ruckstuhl, whose best jump was 5.71m. However, the javelin is often where Ruckstuhl comes into her own, and so it proved in the early afternoon as she launched the spear a hefty 52.87m, moving her from sixth to first in one fell swoop. Also re-entering the title hunt after the javelin was Ukraine&rsquo;s Alina Shukh, the world youth best-holder in the girls&rsquo; heptathlon, who threw a personal best of 54.57m to move up to fourth. &nbsp;Before the final event, the permutations for the title hunt were complex, with Ruckstuhl holding a 39-point lead on Austria&rsquo;s Andrea Obetzhofer, who had moved up to second place after six events courtesy of personal bests in the long jump (5.79m) and javelin (46.46m) with Lagger 74 points further back.If all the leading contenders matched their personal bests in the final event, then the title looked to be heading to either to Lagger or Shukh, on paper by far the best 800m runners in the field. When the gun fired, Shukh took off like a scared rabbit, scampering through the first 400m in 64.02. Lagger wisely backed off the scorching pace, going through in about 67 seconds.With 200m to run, and Shukh still holding a considerable lead, it looked like the Ukrainian was on course for a medal &ndash; and maybe even the gold &ndash; but when she entered the home straight, she began to pay the price for her early exuberance and slowed to a painful stagger.Lagger, meanwhile, was holding her form magnificently and came powering past the Ukrainian with 50 metres to run, eventually coming home a clear winner in a personal best of 2:15.48. Shukh fell across the line exhausted shortly after in 2:17.09. Immediately after Shukh, incredibly, came Ruckstuhl, whose previous best of 2:26.29 had been reduced by a stunning nine seconds, her final time of 2:17.58 giving her a crucial 857 points, which brought her total to 6037, the second-best girls&rsquo; tally ever with the current set of implements.This feat gave her a 45-point winning margin over Lagger, who did remarkably well to recover from a disappointing day one &ndash; in which a mistake in the 100m hurdles cost her dearly &ndash; to win the silver with a total of 5992.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect a medal was possible after the hurdles,&rdquo; said Lagger, &ldquo;so I&rsquo;m more than happy with the silver. I knew perhaps the gold was possible going into the 800m, but I missed three things &ndash; the hurdles was not good, the shot put was not good and finally the javelin &ndash; but I am still on the podium, so I&rsquo;m happy.&rdquo;Shukh&rsquo;s brave bid for glory in the 800m was rewarded with a bronze medal, her tally of 5896 points some way off her world youth best 6039. &ldquo;I ran as fast as I could,&rdquo; said Shukh. &ldquo;I feel I gave it all I had. I&rsquo;m exhausted.&rdquo;The champion, meanwhile, could hardly contain her excitement afterwards, victory arriving with an overwhelming sense of disbelief. &ldquo;It was so amazing,&rdquo; said Ruckstuhl. &ldquo;To run 2:17 in the 800m and get over 6000 points, I just can&rsquo;t believe it. I&rsquo;m so happy.&rdquo;Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF

With an astonishing comeback on the second day of competition, Switzerland’s Geraldine Ruckstuhl moved from sixth to first and set a championship record of 6037 points to take gold in a thrilling finale to the girls’ heptathlon at the IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 on Saturday night (18). 

Girls' heptathlon – IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015

If previous form is to be believed, then the girls&rsquo; heptathlon should come down to a head-to-head duel between world youth leaders Ukraine&rsquo;s Alina Shukh and Austria&rsquo;s Sarah Lagger.
Lagger, in particular, looks set to have an extremely busy week; she&rsquo;s entered in both the 100m hurdles and long jump in addition to the heptathlon, a workload which would see her competing on all five days of the championships.
In May, the 15-year-old Lagger became the youngest athlete to break the 6000-point barrier in the youth heptathlon, scoring 6014 in Leibnitz. At the time, it was the highest score achieved in a youth heptathlon using the lighter throwing implements, which were introduced at this level two years ago.
However, Ukraine&rsquo;s Shukh has since usurped Lagger at the head of the world youth lists courtesy of a 6039-point performance in Kirovohrad in recent weeks.
At that event, Shukh ran personal bests of 14.20 in the 100m hurdles, 26.31 in the 200m and 2:15.87 over 800m. A 49-metre javelin thrower and 1.83m high jumper, she will take considerable stopping in Cali, but her battle for supremacy with Lagger should nonetheless be an intriguing one. &nbsp;
Others in the medal hunt could include Switzerland&rsquo;s Geraldine Ruckstuhl, who posted a personal best of 5861 last month, Cuba&rsquo;s Adriana Rodriguez, Sweden&rsquo;s Bianca Salming and Ireland&rsquo;s Elizabeth Morland.
Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF

If previous form is to be believed, then the girls’ heptathlon should come down to a head-to-head duel between world youth leaders Ukraine’s Alina Shukh and Austria’s Sarah Lagger. 