Santiago Ford, Ben Thiele and Karsten Warholm in the boys 110m Hurdles Octathlon at the IAAF World Youth Championships 2013 (© Getty Images)
Smashing his lifetime best by more than 500 points, Norway’s Karsten Warholm stole the show in the boys’ Octathlon, recording no less than six lifetime best performances over the two-day competition to lead from start to finish.
With a 6451 score, the 17-year-old fell only 40 points short of the World youth best and finished almost 200 points ahead of Russia’s Feliks Shestopalov (6260) and the Czech Republic’s Jan Dolezal (6222) in silver and bronze with a personal best each.
For 17-year-old Shestopalov, the mark represented an improvement of more than 200 points courtesy of six lifetime best scores, while – like Warholm – taking his nation’s first ever medal in this event in the 14-year history of this championship.
Dolezal, meanwhile with six lifetime bests also, took the Czech Republic’s third medal across the eight editions of this event, following silver in 2007 and bronze in 2003 for the nation.
For Warholm, the event was an opportunity to establish his dominance from the offset, which he did in speeding to a 10.86 100m personal best as the fastest time of the day before producing a solid 7.30m long jump.
Later on day one, he threw another lifetime best in the shot with 12.94m to maintain the overall lead, before extending his margin again in the final event of the day, the 400m, by running 48.09 for the quickest time and a personal best to boot.
Warholm therefore held the overnight lead with 3347, with Shestopalov further adrift in fourth with 3137 and Dolezal in sixth with 3124.
Beginning the second day with the fastest time in the 110m Hurdles with a 13.86 personal best before setting another best with 2.02m in the High Jump, Warholm fell more than two metres short of his best in the Javelin with a 42.53m effort but enjoyed a strong enough lead going into the final event, the 1000m, to have a glimpse at glory.
Fittingly, Warholm crossed the line first in the 1000m with a PB of 2:45.80, celebrating his overall victory down most of the home straight.
