At this stage, it should come as no surprise to witness another Cuban masterclass in the horizontal jumps, but there was no denying that the feats of teenager long jumpers Maikel Y. Vidal and Lester A. Lescay proved the highlight on the second evening of action at the IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017 on Thursday (13).
If there was a surprise, then it was the close nature of the contest in the boys&rsquo; long jump, with event favourite Maikel Y. Vidal taking a narrow victory in the end with a best of 7.88m, a world U18 lead.
Beforehand he stood head and shoulders over his rivals, and after that third-round effort he appeared to have the event at his mercy. Of the others, no one had surpassed 7.50m through the opening three rounds, his teammate Lester A. Lescay leading the chase with 7.49m.
With victory seemingly assured, Vidal appeared non-plussed after fouling his final three efforts, but in the final round he got a fright from Lescay, his 15-year-old teammate, who launched himself to a PB of 7.79m. That proved good enough for silver, but not enough to usurp Vidal. Romania&rsquo;s Andreas Samuel Busca took third with a final-round effort of 7.47m.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m proud for representing my country well,&rdquo; said Vidal. &ldquo;I intend to keep improving since I believe I have a long way to go.&rdquo;
<h3>Northoff a class apart</h3>
Germany&rsquo;s Timo Northoff claimed a convincing win in the boys&rsquo; shot put, the 17-year-old seizing command in the second round with a put of 20.50m. In truth, that was more than enough for gold, though with victory secured, the German unleashed another lifetime best in the final round, his mark of 20.72m a world U18 lead.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a great experience,&rdquo; said Northoff. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve learnt a lot and my work will be to improve again in the next competition. I&rsquo;m excited to bring the gold home.&rdquo;
His closest threat &ndash; if we could call it that &ndash; came from Belarus&rsquo;s Mikhail Samuseu, who threw 19.99m in the fifth round which secured him silver. Jonathan De Lacey of South Africa looked sure to challenge for the gold after his second-round effort of 19.93m, but that was a mark he couldn&rsquo;t improve on in his subsequent attempts and he had to settle for bronze.
If there was a hard-luck story, then perhaps it was Bosnia and Herzegovina&rsquo;s Nermin Stitkovac, who had thrown 19.60m in qualifying but could manage no better than 19.06m in the final, which placed him fifth. Stitkovac appeared to unleash a 20-metre throw in the final round, which would have been good enough to move him into the medal positions, but it was ruled a foul.
<h3>Clinch claims decathlon glory</h3>
In the boys&rsquo; decathlon, Steven Fauvel Clinch ended the competition the same way he began: in the lead. The French athlete started day two with a victory in 13.94 in the 110m hurdles, just .10 short of his lifetime best. The discus proved disappointing, with his biggest throw of 34.14m well down on his best. However, he bounced back in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.50m, adding 20cm to his PB, which moved him back to the head of the standings.
In the javelin, he threw a decent 48.08m to maintain his lead over Olegs Kozjakovs, who applied some pressure ahead of the 1500m with a best of 55.76m.
The 1500m proved a dawdle for much of the race, the weary competitors not prepared to suffer unduly early on. However, when it came to the crunch, it was again Fauvel Clinch who led them home with an impressive sprint in 4:48.61.
That gave him a winning tally of 7559 and made him the second French boy to win a world U18 combined events title, following in the footsteps of 2009 winner Kevin Mayer, the Olympic silver medallist.
Kozjakovs closed out a good competition with a 5:12.82 to set a PB of 7377 and take silver, while Germany&rsquo;s Leo Neugebauer took bronze over France&rsquo;s Florian Fourre, 7204 to 7099.
One of the most dominant winners of the day came in the boys&rsquo; javelin, with China&rsquo;s Zhekai Liu adding the world U18 title to the Asian Games U18 title he won earlier this year. Liu opened with an intimidating 73.32m effort to seize command in the first round, then improved to 77.54m in the second round, a lifetime best. &nbsp;After that his best was a 76.96m throw&nbsp; in the fifth round, and with victory secured he willingly fouled his final attempt after seeing it drop down near the 70-metre line.
His closest pursuer was South Africa&rsquo;s Johannes Schlebusch, who opened with 72.31m then improved to 72.61m in the third round to sit in the silver medal position at halfway, and that was a place he consolidated after a 74.00m throw in the fifth round. After straining to find something special in the final round, he managed a lifetime best of 75.68m to secure silver.
China&rsquo;s Qingshu Song hit the right notes in the final round after some earlier difficulties, throwing 73.64m to take the bronze medal.
<h3>Ay upsets Davis</h3>
There was a massive upset in the girls&rsquo; 100m with Jamaican favourite Kevona Davis unable to produce anything like her best form. Davis trailed from the blocks behind Poland&rsquo;s Magdalena Stefanowicz and Turkey&rsquo;s Mizgin Ay, and the 15-year-old visibly strained to close the advantage, but found herself pulling up before the line and clutching her hamstring shortly after, her time of 11.67 only good enough for third.
In the end it was Ay who got from A to B the fastest, the Turk crossing the line in 11.62 and handed the verdict over Stefanowicz, who clocked the same time in second, which was a PB. &nbsp;
Elsewhere there were a clutch of semi-finals to decide on Thursday, with Jamaica&rsquo;s Anthony Cox the fastest into the 400m final with his time of 46.86 in heat two. He will be closely challenged, however, by Brazil&rsquo;s Bruno Benedito da Silva, who clocked a PB of 46.87 in the third heat.
Barboara Malikova was fastest in the girls&rsquo; 400m semi-finals, winning in a PB of 53.77 ahead of Kenya&rsquo;s Mary Moraa, second in 53.88.
Ethiopia appears to hold all the aces in the boys&rsquo; 800m final, their two athletes &ndash; Melese Nberet and Tolesa Bodena &ndash; looking supreme when winning their 800m semi-finals earlier this evening.
Cathal Dennehy for the IAAF

At this stage, it should come as no surprise to witness another Cuban masterclass in the horizontal jumps, but there was no denying the feats of teenager long jumpers Maikel Y. Vidal and Lester A. Lescay proved the highlight on the second evening of action at the IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017 on Thursday (13).

Cuban masterclass highlights second evening of IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017

Steven Fauvel Clinch ended the decathlon the way he started it: in the lead.
The French teenager led after the opening event and only surrendered his lead after the shot put when Latvia&rsquo;s Olegs Kozjakovs produced a championship best of 18.07m. That pattern continued on the second day as Fauvel Clinch only slipped from the top spot after Kozjakovs produced a mammoth effort in the discus, but he soon regained his lead and maintained it until the conclusion of the competition.
The second day started with a clear 13.94 victory in the 110m hurdles from Fauvel Clinch, just 0.10 short of his lifetime best and easily the fastest of the day.
Kozjakovs was similarly close to his own PB, clocking 15.46, while Germany&rsquo;s Leo Neugebauer chopped 0.3 off his lifetime best with 14.86.
The discus proved to be Fauvel Clinch&rsquo;s biggest weakness and he managed just 34.14m, more than five metres adrift of his PB. Kozjakovs, meanwhile, banked valuable points with his throw of 48.17m, which was enough to take a 68-point lead overall. Neugebauer kept up the pressure with a throw of 45.02m.
But the top performer in the discus was Lithuania&rsquo;s Tomas Sabasinskas, who broke the championship best with his throw of 48.60m.
Most of the points that Fauvel Clinch lost in the discus were regained in the next event, the pole vault. His clearance of 4.50m added 20 centimetres to his PB and gave him back the lead with two events remaining.
Compatriot Florian Fourre was the last man standing in the pole vault, equalling the championship best of 4.70m to give himself a shot of a medal. Kozjakovs and Neugebauer were just shy of their bests, clearing 3.70m and 4.20m respectively.
Fauvel Clinch, who carried a slight elbow injury going into the championships, wasn&rsquo;t expecting much in the javelin. But he came within a couple of metres of his PB and his 48.08m throw was enough to maintain the lead going into the final discipline.
Kozjakovs was still putting up a fight, though, and produced PBs with each of his three throws: 47.53m, 51.03m and 55.76m. The Latvian hadn&rsquo;t quite done enough to challenge for the gold medal, but his efforts put him in a safe silver medal position ahead of the 1500m.
Fourre was also applying the pressure and threw 54.89m. And with Neugebauer nearly nine metres down on his best with 43.47m, it meant the battle for bronze was going to be hotly contested between the pair in the 1500m as Fourre&rsquo;s PB in that event was 20 seconds quicker than Neugebauer&rsquo;s.
Perhaps it was the altitude or maybe the medal contenders were simply trying to tactically hold on to their medal positions, but the 1500m set off at a pedestrian pace with no one willing to push for a PB. Fittingly, Fauvel Clinch crossed the line in first place in 4:48.61, holding off the fast-finishing Damian Moretta of Argentina.
It brought Fauvel Clinch&rsquo;s winning tally to an equal world U18 lead of 7559 as he became the second French boy to win a world U18 combined events title, following in the footsteps of 2009 winner Kevin Mayer, the Olympic silver medallist.
Kozjakovs finished well down the field in 5:12.82, but it was more than enough to retain his silver medal position with a PB of 7377. Neugebauer kept Fourre in his sights for the duration of the race and finished just a few seconds behind to hold on to bronze, scoring 7204.
Fourre finished fourth with 7099, comfortably ahead of China&rsquo;s Sun Qihao, who scored 6959.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

Steven Fauvel Clinch ended the decathlon the way he started it: in the lead.

Report: decathlon day two – IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017

The anticipated two-way battle between Germany&rsquo;s Maximilian Kluth and France&rsquo;s Steven Fauvel Clinch fizzled out after one decathlon discipline at the IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017.
FauvelClinch sped to a 10.82 (1.3m/s) lifetime best in the opening event, the 100m, while Kluth wasn&rsquo;t too far from his own PB with a solid run of 11.44. But Kluth, the highest decathlon scorer this year among the entrants in Nairobi, picked up a slight injury before the long jump got underway and withdrew from the competition.
After an opening effort of 6.99m, Fauvel Clinch flew out to a huge lifetime best of 7.38m with his second jump to extend his overall lead. In Kluth&rsquo;s absence, German teammate Leo Neugebauer leapt into contention with a 7.25m PB, while Latvia&rsquo;s Olegs Kozjakovs, another medal contender, entered the fray after leaping a PB of 6.89m.
Despite being the youngest in the field, Kozjakovs was the star of the next event, the shot put. With his final effort, the Baltic youth decathlon champion sent his 5kg sphere out to 18.06m, adding more than a metre to his lifetime best and smashing the championship best by 79 centimetres.
Fauvel Clinch held on to his overall lead, though, by the slender margin of 33 points after throwing 14.09m in the shot, just nine centimetres short of his PB. Neugebauer&rsquo;s chances took a bit of a hit, however, with the German more than a metre down on his lifetime best with a throw of 14.51m, but he ended the event in third place overall.
The high jump was disrupted by a break in proceedings in the hope that the heavy rain would ease off. After two hours, with the weather not much kinder than it was when the action was paused, athletes returned to the high jump apron to complete their remaining attempts.
Fauvel Clinch had initially brushed the bar off with his final attempt at 1.90m when the rain was at its heaviest, so officials allowed him to retake his final jump when the competition resumed. The result was the same, though, and he had to make do with a best of 1.87m.
With the bar at 1.93m, Kozjakovs went clear on his first attempt to take the overall lead in the competition. He then went on to equal his PB of 1.99m to open up a 74-point lead on his French rival. Neugebauer, meanwhile, also closed the gap after equalling his PB of 1.93m.
Lining up for the 400m almost 12 hours after their decathlon started, Fauvel Clinch came back fighting in the final discipline of the day, determined to regain his lead. He comfortably won his heat and took a big chunk off his PB with a clocking of 49.09.
Kozjakovs and Neugebauer both trimmed their personal bests down to 51.39 and 52.41 respectively to remain in medal contention, but the Latvian surrendered his lead. Fauvel Clinch ended the day in pole position with 4084, 31 points ahead of Kozjakovs. Neugebauer is third with 3842, one point in front of Spain&rsquo;s Jorge Davila.
France&rsquo;s Florian Fourre ended the first day in seventh place with 3538 points, but some of his best events &ndash; in particular the final three on the second day &ndash; are yet to come and he could challenge for a spot on the podium.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

The anticipated two-way battle between Germany’s Maximilian Kluth and France’s Steven Fauvel Clinch fizzled out after one decathlon discipline at the IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017.

Cuban masterclass highlights second evening of IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017

Report: decathlon day two – IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017

Report: decathlon day one – IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017