Tate Taylor 9.94 100 m win
EUGENE (USA, Aug 6): USA defeated Jamaica in both 100m finals at the World Athletics U20 Championships. Tate Taylor improved to 9.94 (0.1) to win the men’s title clearly ahead of Gary Card (10.05) and South Africa’s Marco Ferreira (10.16), while Mia Maxwell won in 11.14 (-0.1) from Shanoya Douglas (11.17) and U18 Kelly Doualla of Italy (11.27).
Fresh Commonwealth medallist Jessica Oji of Nigeria posted 18.08 to win the shot put ahead of Ecuador’s Belsy Jennifer Quinonez (17.90 U20NR) and Emily Scherf of Germany (17.23 PB).
The other three winners on Thursday evening delivered world U20 season leads and lifetime bests. Finland’s Enni Virjonen scored 6214 points in the heptathlon (13.36/1.3 – 166 – 14.35 PB – 23.99/-0.7 / 629/1.5 – 43.65 – 2:17.25) and won over Mia Mireia Uusorg of Estonia (5961) and Switzerland’s Anna Pfister (5850 PB), while Briton Thea Brown (5826 PB) injured faded out of the podium in last two disciplines.
Two medals for France in the long jump, as in 2016, Djelika Diarra improved to 652 (0.6) ahead of Evelyn Mitropoulou of Greece (644/0.5) and Soudatou Niang (634/-0.4 =PB). In the women’s discus, China’s Su Yixin with 61.06 PB defeated Jaslene Massey of USA (58.41), fresh U18 European champion Marina Hadjicosta of Cyprus third (54.88). Quincy Wilson in 45.02, (senior) World 4x400m relay medallist Leendert Koekemor of South Africa (45.18) and another American Jayden Deleon (45.49) won the men’s 400m semifinals, while UAE’s sub-45 Suleiman Abdulrahman was eliminated.
Ataja Stephanie-Vazquez of USA (51.76), European U20 medallist Anastazja Kus of Poland (52.43) and Guyana’s Tianna Springer (52.48) were in the women’s semifinals. Kenya’s Caren Chepchirchir (4:12.09) and Osama Er Redouani of Morocco (3:42.23 PB) were the fastest in the 1500m heats.