US sprint sensation Candace Hill&rsquo;s championship record of 11.07 (0.9m/s) to take the women&rsquo;s 100m title was the undoubted highlight on the third evening of action at the IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016 on Thursday (21).
In the final event of the night, the 17-year-old provided a suitably thrilling climax to proceedings, edging local favourite Ewa Swoboda of Poland, who set a national U20 record of 11.12 in second. Trinidad and Tobago&rsquo;s Khalifa St Fort took the bronze medal in 11.18.
Hill, the world U18 champion and the fastest US schoolgirl in history, made a quick turnaround after the US Olympic Trials to come to Bydgoszcz, but her efforts were rewarded in kind. &ldquo;I was disappointed after US Trials, but my goal was to win and bring the title back home,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I wanted to beat the championship record too.&rdquo;
That she did, Hill&rsquo;s time of 11.07 smashing Veronica Campbell-Brown&rsquo;s mark of 11.12, which had stood for 16 years.
Swoboda was equally elated in second. &ldquo;I faced the best sprinters in the world,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I lost by just 0.05. That&rsquo;s half the length of a finger. My career is only just getting started. Get ready for faster running.&rdquo;
Great Britain&rsquo;s Imani-Lara Lansiquot finished fourth in 11.37, with Colombia&rsquo;s Eveyln Rivera fifth in 11.59.
<h3>Watson and Krah make it&nbsp;triple gold&nbsp;for USA</h3>
Hill&rsquo;s victory made it a night to remember for&nbsp;the US team as Samantha Watson claimed gold in the women's 800m and Marcus Krah did likewise in the men's 110m hurdles final.
Watson powered to the front around the final turn in the two-lap event, the world U18 champion seizing control ahead of Kenya&rsquo;s Betty Chepkemoi Sigei and racing away to victory in 2:04.52. Her compatriot Aaliyah Miller arrived with a late charge to take second in 2:05.06, just in front of Ethiopia&rsquo;s Tigist Ketema, who came home third in 2:05.13.
&ldquo;All the training has paid off,&rdquo; said Watson. &ldquo;I just wanted to get to that finish line really badly. As I was coming into the home straight, I didn&rsquo;t know where Aaliyah was, I was just hoping she was right behind me.&rdquo;
Unlike Watson, Krah led every step of the way to take the 110m hurdles title, blasting from the blocks in explosive fashion and snapping his way over the 10 barriers to a virtually flawless performance. Unsurprisingly, his winning time of 13.25 was a personal best and his joy was bolstered at the finish as he looked across to see teammate Amere Lattin take silver, his 13.30 also a PB. Japan&rsquo;s Takumu Furuya was a hair&rsquo;s breadth behind in third, his 13.31 an Asian U20 record.
&ldquo;I never thought I would actually get gold until I got here,&rdquo; said Krah. &ldquo;It feels great to finish one and two with my teammate.&rdquo;
While the US may have won the overall war in the sprint events on Thursday night, close rivals Jamaica gained victory in one major battle.
They had never won the women&rsquo;s 400m title at this championships, but Tiffany James ended that drought with a composed, courageous display of one-lap running.
The 19-year-old clocked 51.32 to take victory, the fastest time in the world by an U20 athlete this year, marginally in front of Lynna Irby of USA (51.39) and Jamaican teammate Junelle Bromfield (52.05).
&ldquo;It was my goal since the start of the season,&rdquo; said James. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had bad seasons in recent years so I said coming into this year I want to get that gold. I don&rsquo;t want to say I surprised myself because I work hard and I expected that.&rdquo;
<h3>Martinez magnificent in triple jump</h3>
Cuba continued their dominance in the horizontal jumps as Lazaro Martinez took the men&rsquo;s triple jump title in 17.06m, the longest jump in the world by an U20 athlete this year. His closest challenger &ndash; who, to be frank, was not very close at all &ndash; was teammate Cristian Napoles, who took silver in 16.62m. France&rsquo;s Melvin Raffin took third with a best of 16.37m.
&ldquo;I wanted to beat the world U20 record [17.50m],&rdquo; said Martinez. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s within my reach, but for now, Cuba won what everybody expected, gold and silver.&rdquo;
The women's pole vault was won in a championship record of 4.55m by Angelica Moser of Switzerland. Moser topped 4.40m, 4.45m, and 4.50m with her first attempts, the latter to equal the championship record held jointly by 2012 winner Angelica Bengtsson and 2014 champion Alena Lutkovskaya.
She then followed up with first attempt success at 4.55m, also on her first try, to seal the victory, take sole possession of the competition record, and move up to No. six on the all-time U20 list. "I thought I could vault high here but there were three other girls with better season&rsquo;s bests, so I wasn&rsquo;t sure if I could win," said Moser. "I often set my best marks in major championships and I did it again here."
Silver went to Venezuala's Robeilys Peinado with a best of 4.40m, beating bronze medallist Wilma Murto on countback.&nbsp;
<h3>Taki takes gold with diving finish</h3>
The most dramatic finish of the night came in the men&rsquo;s 1500m as Kumari Taki demonstrated just how much it means to win a world title, the Kenyan diving forward over the line and slamming into the track as he took gold in 3:48.63.
Taki charged to the front with 200 metres to run and it was a lead he never relinquished, his legs carrying him to the line &ndash; just &ndash; to take gold ahead of Ethiopia&rsquo;s Taresa Tolosa in 3:48.77. &ldquo;I knew that the Ethiopian had a stronger kick than me so I had to dive at the line,&rdquo; said Taki. &ldquo;I made it.&rdquo;
Kenya&rsquo;s Anthony Kiptoo came home third in 3:49.00, with France&rsquo;s Baptiste Mischler fading to fourth near the finish in 3:49.52.
In the women's discus, Kristina Rakocevic earned Montenegro's second gold medal in the history of the World U20 Championships, her third-round throw of 56.36m giving her gold by a wide margin ahead of Australia&rsquo;s Kirsty Williams, who threw a PB of 53.91m to finish second.&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing,&rdquo; said Rakocevic. &ldquo;It is the best achievement of my life.&rdquo;
Moldova&rsquo;s Alexandra Emilianov took third in 53.08m, while Serena Brown set a Bahamian U20 record of 52.73m in fourth.
After four events of the women&rsquo;s heptathlon, Cuba&rsquo;s Adriana Rodriguez has a comfortable lead over Austria&rsquo;s Sarah Lagger. Rodriguez had a best of 12.65m in the shot put this evening and clocked a lifetime best of 23.95 in the 200m to give herself an overnight tally of 3691 after four events.
Lagger shot up the standings during the evening session, her 13.09m shot put moving her up to third before a 24.93 200m moved her up to second and she will head to day two on 3510 points. Sweden&rsquo;s Bianca Salming is third on 3441, just ahead of Canada&rsquo;s Nina Schultz on 3437.
Belgium&rsquo;s Hanne Maudens is currently in eighth position on 3369 points, but is expected to move up the standings and announce herself as a medal contender on day two.
Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF

US sprint sensation Candace Hill’s championship record of 11.07 (0.9m/s) to take the women’s 100m title was the undoubted highlight on the third evening of action at the IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016 on Thursday (21).

Hill a champion once again as US dominate day three in Bydgoszcz

There weren&rsquo;t any particularly big throws on a warm and largely still evening in Bydgoszcz but the formbook for the women&rsquo;s discus played out with Montenegro&rsquo;s Kristina Rakocevic winning by nearly three metres.
Rakocevic, who led the 2016 world U20 list with 58.30m, became just the second athlete from her country to claim a title in championship history, following in the footsteps of Marina Vukovic who won the high jump in 2010.
After taking the lead in the second round with 53.56m, Rakocevic extended her advantage in the third round with 56.36m to win by nearly three metres ahead of Australia&rsquo;s Kirsty Williams (53.91m) and Moldova&rsquo;s Alexandra Emilianov (53.08m).
Rakocevic finished second to Emilianov at the IAAF World Youth Championships Cali 2015 and the Moldovan arrived in Bydgoszcz fresh from winning the European Youth Championships in Tbilisi last week with 58.09m &ndash; the best throw by a European U18 since Astrid Kumbernuss in 1987.
At the age of 16, Emilianov still has two full seasons left in the U20 age group and will surely challenge for the title in Tampere in 2018 if she continues her rapid rate of improvement.
But the evening belonged to Rakocevic, who finished down in 11th in Eugene two years ago. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing,&rdquo; she said. It is the best achievement of my life.&rdquo;
Steven Mills for the IAAF

There weren’t any particularly big throws on a warm and largely still evening in Bydgoszcz but the formbook for the women’s discus played out with Montenegro’s Kristina Rakocevic winning by nearly three metres.

Report: women's discus – IAAF World U20 Championships Bydgoszcz 2016

Taking firm control of the competition from the third round, Julia Ritter claimed a well-deserved victory at the IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 in the girls&rsquo; shot put to become the second to win this event at these championships for Germany.Opening with a modest 16.75m toss, she was quickly overtaken by USA&rsquo;s Sophia Rivera of the USA who reached 16.97m just minutes before crossing the infield to the javelin runway where she was competing simultaneously.&nbsp; Ritter retook the lead with 17.27m with her second effort, only to be again bettered by Rivera, who responded with 17.66m.The German hit back hard in round three, launching the 3kg shot to 18.34m, an effort beyond Rivera's personal best.&nbsp; Ritter improved further to 18.53m, a personal best which solidified her seventh spot on the world youth all-time list, before closing out with 17.73m and 17.12m tosses.&ldquo;I cannot believe this,&rdquo; said Ritter, who arrived in Cali with an 18.51m lifetime best to her credit.&nbsp; &ldquo;After the first attempt I thought that I would get nothing, but then I threw 17 meters and then the personal best. Now I know how Robert Harting and David Storl feel after such a success.&rdquo;Rivera meanwhile fouled in round three, produced a pair of sub-16.30m throws before regrouping in the final round, when she improved to 17.93m.&nbsp; At the other end of the infield, she finished a respectable eighth in the javelin, where she threw 50.85m.&ldquo;I was only second, but I enjoyed it,&rdquo; Rivera said. &ldquo;And I would do it all again to compete in both finals.&rdquo;&nbsp; To accommodate her unique double duty, Rivera was accompanied by an official between competition areas where her quick preparation required, among other things, changing her shoes.Kristina Rakocevic became the first double medallist at Cali 2015, adding bronze at this event to the silver she won in the discus throw on Wednesday.&nbsp; The Montenegrin reached 17.49m in round three, just enough to hold of Poland&rsquo;s Maja Slepowronska who putted 17.41m in round four.Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

Taking firm control of the competition from the third round, Julia Ritter claimed a well-deserved victory at the IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015 in the girls’ shot put to become the second to win this event at these championships for Germany.

Girls' shot put – IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015

A 52.78m effort in the second round not only secured Alexandra Emilianov an upset victory in the girls&rsquo; discus throw on Wednesday (15), it also marked the first-ever gold medal for Moldova at the IAAF World Youth Championships.Arriving in Cali with a 51.18m best from a home competition in Chisinau in mid-May, she trailed pre-event favourite Kristina Rakocevic by nearly three metres on the yearly lists. But her big throw&nbsp;early in the competition knocked a bit of the stuffing out of her main rival, who was simply unable to respond.Rakocevic, who brought a 53.91m personal best to the Pascual Guerrero Stadium, opened with 48.91m, a lead she padded generously courtesy of a 51.04m throw in round two.Emilianov met the challenge with her personal best which would ultimately hold on for the victory. But it was a nail-biter.After a foul in round three, Rakocevic registered a 50.41m toss in round four, fouled again in the fifth and ended the competition improving marginally to 51.41m with her sixth-round effort.Her medal was the first for Montenegro at an IAAF World Youth Championships and was only the second at an IAAF championship at any level. In 2010, Marija Vukovic won women&rsquo;s high jump gold at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Canada.Both Emilianov and Rakocevic will quickly return to action on Thursday morning in the qualifying round of the shot put.Samantha Peace took bronze with a 50.59m personal best to collect the first medal in the event for Australia at these championships since 2005 winner Dani Samuels, who would later go on to take world titles at the junior and senior levels. Alma Patricia Pollorena of Mexico reached a PB 49.25m in round four to finish fourth.Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

A 52.78m effort in the second round not only secured Alexandra Emilianov an upset victory in the girls’ discus throw on Wednesday (15), it also marked the first-ever gold medal for Moldova at the IAAF World Youth Championships.

Girls' discus – IAAF World Youth Championships, Cali 2015

Kristina Rakocevic arrives in a strong position to leave Cali as a double champion.
Two medals are certainly within reach for the 17-year-old Montenegrin who tops the world youth lists in the shot put and leads the entrants in the discus by more than two metres.
Rakocevic arrives on the heels of a 53.91m national senior record from her runner-up finish at the European Third League Team Championship in Baku in late June.
Additionally, she was fourth in this event at the Youth Olympic Games last year, so is no stranger to the big stage.
Should Rakocevic pull off a double victory, she&rsquo;d be just the second in championships history to do so, after China&rsquo;s Mei Hong succeeded at the inaugural edition in Bydgoszcz in 1999.
The Montenegrin&rsquo;s five best efforts of the year are better than the season&rsquo;s best of the USA&rsquo;s 16-year-old Josephine Schaefer, who reached 51.62m in May prior to winning the national youth title two weeks ago.
Among the others to watch is Moldova&rsquo;s 15-year-old Alexandra Emilianov, who improved to 51.18m in mid-May.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

Kristina Rakocevic arrives in a strong position to leave Cali as a double champion.