Breyton Poole at the South African U18 Championships (© Roger Sedres)
Eighteen years after Jaques Freitag won the inaugural World Youth Championships title, South Africa is once again favoured to take gold in the high jump. Breyton Poole, with 2.18m to his name this year, is the clear number one among the entrants. The 17-year old also jumped 2.15m to take the national U18 title and the same height when he placed fourth in the senior national championships.
The strongest challenge to Poole's dominance may come from Cao Vo Ngoc Long of Vietnam, who lifted the Asian U18 title this year with 2.10m.
The rest of the field looks evenly matched. The highest clearances among them were achieved by both German entrants, Devon Bender and Chimea Ihenetu, as well as Poland's Piotr Sztandur, all of them with 2.08 to their names this year.
Pawel Jackowski for the IAAF
