Gabriel Alvarado wins the 10,000m race walk for Nicaragua at the Pan American U20 Championships (© Fernando Neris)
USA’s women came close to the world U20 4x100m record as Costa Rica and Nicaragua won historic golds at the 21st Pan American U20 Championships, held over three days (4-6) at Jose A. Figueroa Freire Stadium in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
Kaila Jackson, Camryn Dickson, Avery Lewis and Shawnti Jackson ran seamless baton exchanges en route to a 42.88 clocking, breaking the 17-year-old US U20 record and coming close to the world U20 record of 42.59 set by a Jamaican quartet to get gold exactly one year ago at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
Shawnti Jackson, the daughter of 2005 world 400m hurdles champion Bershawn Jackson, continued her breakout season, improving her personal best over 200m to 22.35, a championship record and a time that propelled her to seventh place on the all-time U20 list.
Shawnti Jackson leads the 200m at the Pan American U20 Championships (© Fernando Neris)
The 18-year-old will have the chance to collect her first global medals next year when the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships is held.
In the same event for men, Renan Correa achieved the only gold for Brazil over the weekend. The 19-year-old ran 20.37 in the heats and sealed a comfortable victory in the final with 20.44.
Various medallists from the 2022 World U20 Championships in Cali were in full display in Mayaguez, including Jamaica’s 200m bronze medallist Alana Reid, who dominated the 100m in 11.33. The 18-year-old became the sixth-fastest U20 athlete at the distance with a national record of 10.92 at the Jamaican High School Championships.
Another bronze medallist from the Cali event, Manuela Rotundo, wrote a new chapter in Uruguay’s athletics history by becoming the first woman from her country to win a continental title. The leader from round one, she sealed her victory with her third-best throw ever in the javelin (55.49m) in the final round. Her win came 18 years after Andres Silva won the first and only gold medal for Uruguay until this weekend, in the decathlon at the 2005 edition in Canada.
While they do not boast global success, two race walkers also rewrote the history books for their respective Central American and neighbouring nations. In the first event of the championships, Sharon Herrera opened the winning path to Costa Rica in the 10,000m race walk. The 19-year-old, equal third on the 2023 10km race walk U20 list, won by close to 10 seconds in 49:53.76.
Sharon Herrera celebrates her race walk win for Costa Rica at the Pan American U20 Championships (© Fernando Neris)
Four years earlier, her compatriot Noelia Vargas had opened the podium path for Costa Rica with a bronze medal in the same event on home soil.
A day after Herrera’s win, Gabriel Alvarado put Nicaragua on top of the medals with a photo finish victory in the men’s 10,000m race walk with 43:04.46. Alvarado completed the second half three minutes faster than the first one, including a last lap under 75 seconds to prevail over Mexico’s Emiliano Barba by less than 0.8 seconds. After he crossed the finish line, Barba received a one-minute penalty for three red cards and lost a medal spot. Those went to Colombia’s Jesus Ramirez and Mexico’s Hugo Reyes.
Nicaragua’s previous and only medal came 20 years earlier, Dalila Rugama claiming bronze in the javelin.
Exactly one month shy of her 18th birthday, USA’s Ellie Shea completed the 1500m-3000m double and became the only athlete with two individual titles in Mayaguez. Two days after her victory in the 1500m, Shea ran her own race over seven and a half laps to cross the finish line in 9:05.78. Her 3000m time erased one the oldest championship records (9:16.05), set by Canada’s Lisa Harvey in 1989.
With one more full U20 season remaining in 2024, Shea can set her sights on the US record for this category (8:57.27), set 41 years ago by Ceci Hopp.
Other standout performances in Mayaguez came in the 400m, by Canada’s Will Floyd (45.62) and USA’s Christine Mallard (51.88). The mixed 4x400m was contested for the first time, with the US quartet of George Garcia, Madison Whyte, Max De Angelo and JaMeesia Ford crossing the finish line first in 3:18.07.
With the largest delegation, the USA dominated the medal tally with 62 medals (30 gold, 18 silver and 14 bronze), followed by Canada (6-4-6) and Jamaica (1-8-4). A total of 16 nations won at least one medal.
Held for the first time in Puerto Rico, the Pan American U20 Championships has witnessed more than a dozen world records, with up and coming athletes having tasted their first international success in its 43-year history. Those include Usain Bolt, who set his world U20 200m record in the 2003 edition. More recently, Athing Mu won 800m gold in 2019 before gaining her Olympic title in 2021 and world crown in 2022.
Javier Clavelo Robinson for World Athletics