Shot put winner Guo Tianqian at the IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014 (© Getty Images)
China’s Guo Tianqian confirmed her status as favourite with a dominant victory. The 2011 world youth champion and 2014 world junior leader was a class apart, producing the only 17-metre efforts of the afternoon. She took the lead with her opening 16.96m and increased it by more than one metre with her fourth-round effort of 17.71m.
US junior champion Raven Saunders overtook Turkey’sworld youth and European junior champion Emel Dereli with her last-gasp 16.63m toss in the final round to clinch the silver medal.
Trailing Guo after the second round, Dereli eventually had to be content with a bronze medal thanks to her second-round 16.55m. She won Turkey’s first medal at Hayward Field, and just the fifth ever in the history of the championships.
Guo restored Chinese pride in the event after a long drought. Qiu Qiaoping, Wang Yawen, Chen Xiaoyang all Song Feina claimed four consecutive gold medals between 1990 and 1996.
It has been a good championships so far for China. She also joined Wang Jianan, the long jump winner on Thursday, and there is a good chance both winners will be in China’s team for the 2015 IAAF World Championships on home soil in Beijing next summer.
Four women improved their personal bests to finish in the top eight, including Sweden’s sixth-palced Fanny Roos, who improved the national junior record to 16.29m.
Javier Clavelo Robinson for IAAF
