Bianca Perie of Romania on her way to victory in the Women's Hammer Throw (© Getty Images)
The performances were as changeable as the weather on the second evening of the IAAF World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, as two Championship records tumbled, pre-event favourites were sent packing and Jamaican sprinting and Kenyan distance running enjoyed a night to remember.
Chilly conditions inside the Zawisza Stadium and a combination of wind, rain and sun made life tricky for the world’s teenage track and field elite but it is hard to imagine Dexter Lee complaining.
Lee upsets 100m favourites
The World Youth 100m champion coped admirably with both the weather and excruciating tension to make history and become the first Jamaican to win the blue riband event at the World Junior Championships.
Lee profited from a sluggish start from pre-event favourite Terrell Wilks and the Jamaican held a clear lead after 30m, and it was not an advantage he was prepared to relinquish. Wilks appeared to falter under the strain of playing catch up and Lee powered home to take gold in 10.40 into a slight headwind.
Muscular Wilhelm Van Der Vyver of South Africa finished strongly to take silver in 10.42 and Wilks had to settle for the consolation of bronze in 10.45.
Aged just 17, Lee has followed a recent trend of World Youth 100m champions graduating to become a World Junior gold medallists and he took great delight at gaining the upper hand on Jamaica’s greatest sprinting rivals.
“It feels good to get one over on the Americans,” said Lee. “I feel very happy now. I knew I could win this race, I’m not too surprised. I was anxious coming into the race, but I just did my own thing. The conditions were very poor that’s why the winning time was so slow.”
Two gold medals for the US
In the women’s 100m pre-event favourite Jeneba Tarmoh of the USA coped admirably with the pressure to cruise to a comfortable victory. Ignoring an earlier false start, the chilly conditions and a slight headwind she dominated from the first few strides to stop the clock in 11.37.
Great Britain’s Ashlee Nelson snared the silver medal in 11.49 and the fast-finishing Sheniqua Ferguson of the Bahamas bronze in 11.52.
“The false start really threw me off and I could have started better, said Tarmoh. “I wanted to run in the 11.2s, but I’m very happy now.”
American Marquise Goodwin secured men’s long jump gold with a season best of 7.74 - the shortest ever winning leap in the event at the championships. In a disappointing competition which struggled to ignite in chilly conditions, a first round personal best was enough for Goodwin to become the first US winner of the title since Neil Chance in 1992.
Behind him Dzmitry Astrouski of Belarus 7.64m and Spain’s Eusebio Caceres (7.59m) took the minor medals.
Yet another gold for Perie
Bianca Perie’s quest to spark her own individual Gold Rush continued as the Romanian hammer ace secured yet another international age group title.
Perie matched the achievements of Croatia’s Ivana Brkljavic by successfully retaining her World Junior hammer title and bettered her own Championship record with 67.95m to wrap up the competition. Perie - which means brush in Romanian - has swept up gold medals for fun in the age group competitions, winning successive World Youth titles in 2005 and 2007 and also last year’s European Junior crown.
Perie, who also had to contend with a mid-event downpour, said: “I was happy with my result, because I set a championship record. The rain was not a problem – I had already got a good throw in before it started.”
European Junior silver medallist Katerina Safrankova of the Czech Republic settled for second place with a best of 63.13m. Hungary’s Jenny Ozorai snatched bronze with her fifth round attempt of 60.80m.
Kenya prevails in men’s 10,000
A second Championship record was set in the men’s 10,000m as Josphat Kipkoech Bett added his name to the impressive cast list of former winners of the title such as Haile Gebrselassie, Daniel Komen and Richard Chelimo. Ethiopia’s defending champion and pre-event favourite Ibrahim Jeilan was blown away by the relentless pace shared by Bett and compatriot Titus Kipjumba Mbishei.
In the final reckoning it was a scintillating sub-60-second final lap which assured Bett won gold in a new Championship record of 27:30.85 – hacking more than 32 seconds from the previous mark.
Jelian, who at one point was a distant fifth, battled back bravely to snatch the bronze in 28:07.98. But the bragging rights belonged to Kenya.
“I am very happy we beat Ethiopia after they won the title last time,” said Bett in a post-race interview.
Another upset - Nesterenko only bronze, gold for Wolf
The men’s discus witnessed a major surprise as World Junior record holder Mykyta Nesterenko slumped to a shock defeat at the hands of German Gordon Wolf.
The giant Ukrainian with a best of 70.13m headed the world rankings by more than four-and-a-half metres but could only muster a best of 61.01m and appeared to have a technical breakdown. He threw in excess of 65m in round three but the discus crashed to the turf outside the sector lines and the 17-year-old inexplicably failed to produce his best.
In round five Marin Premaru of Croatia edged ahead of Nesterenko with 61.85m only for Wolf to throw a lifetime best of 62.00m with the very next throw of the competition.
Premaru added discus silver to the bronze he won last night’s shot last night and 17-year-old Nesterenko was left to reflect on what might have been and ‘only’ the bronze.
And the rest…
Eduard Mihan of Belarus holds a solid 71-point overnight lead in the men’s decathlon from Mihail Dudas of Serbia after setting three PBs during a first day of mixed fortunes.
Mihan, the pre-event favourite, set new best marks of 10.82 for 100m, 14.47m in the shot and 48.48 in the 400m, although he underperformed in the long jump and high jump. Nonetheless, his 4155 day one points total puts him in control form Dudas. German Jan Felix Knobel stands third overall with 4021 points.
Elsewhere, Abubaker Kaki Khamis made light work of qualifying for the men’s 800m final. The rising Sudanese star, who set a World Junior record of 1:42.69 in Oslo last month, cruised to the quickest qualifying time from tonight’s semi-finals, winning heat two in 1:46.71.
There was no final spot, however, for Felix Martine Konchellah of Kenya. The nephew of two-time former world champion Billy Konchellah and son of Commonwealth champion Patrick Konchellah finished a distant seventh in 1:51.56 behind Kaki.
The one-lap sprinters flexed their muscles with African Championship silver medallist Folashade Abugan comfortably the quickest and most impressive qualifier in the women’s event. The Nigerian cruised to victory in 51.92 and will start favourite in Thursday’s final.
The USA have taken five of the previous 11 men’s 400m title on offer in O’Neal Wilder they could have a man capable of title No.6. The lanky Wilder runs with a slight awkward gait but covered the ground impressively to qualify quickest in 46.08.
Turkey may never have won a women’s medal at these championships but few would bet on that stat remaining in tact by Friday night. Merve Aydin produced a lip-smacking semi-final victory here tonight, accelerating from the back of the pack to the front in less than 30m to jog home to semi-final victory in 2:06.94.
She will not have matters all her own way, however as the other semi-final heat winners Elena Mirela Lavric of Romania (2:05.10) and Great Britain’s Alison Leonard (2:04.07) will testify.
Natalia Duco will start overwhelming favourite ahead of Thursday’s women’s shot put final. The Chilean teenager hurled the metal ball out to 17.89m – a massive 1.69m ahead of the second best placed qualifier, Sophie Kleeberg of Germany.
Steve Landells for the IAAF
