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IAAF WORLD U-20 CHAMPIONSHIP IN TAMPERE

Williams secures sprint double

The penultimate day of action at the IAAF World U20 Championships Tampere 2018 featured some of the biggest names in junior athletics, but the biggest talking point of the session came from a 16-year-old Jamaican girl.
Not just any 16-year-old, of course. Briana Williams had underlined her talent earlier in the week when winning the 100m title from world U20 leader Twanisha Terry. The 200m was considered to be very much her secondary event, though, as she had never bettered 23 seconds and was up against a formidable US duo.
Drawn in lane three, Williams darted around the bend and had a marginal lead on USA’s Lauren Rain Williams as they entered the straight. Showing no signs of fatigue in her sixth race in four days, she then extended her lead in the second half of the race and crossed the line in a championship record of 22.50.
Rain Williams finished a distant second in 23.09 with Poland’s Martyna Kotwila taking bronze in a PB of 23.21.


Gold for Zakayo and Zazini

Edward Zakayo gained revenge on the man who pipped him to 3000m gold at the IAAF World U18 Championships Nairobi 2017, Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega, in a thrilling 5000m contest.
It didn’t take long for a lead pack to emerge. Zakayo and Barega ran alongside Kenya’s Stanley Waithaka, Ethiopia’s Telahun Bekele and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo as they passed 3000 metres in 8:06.70. Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen managed to detach himself from the chase pack and caught up with the leaders with about four laps to go.
The lead group bided their time for a few more laps, but as the bell sounded it looked as though Ingebrigtsen was poised to out-kick Barega and Waithaka. All of the medal contenders had to weave in and out of several lapped runners, but it was Zakayo who proved to have the best kick as he sped past Barega, Ingebrigtsen and Waithaka to take gold in 13:20.16.
Waithaka made it a Kenyan 1-2 with 13:20.57, while Ingebrigtsen took bronze with a PB of 13:20.78, breaking the European U20 record that had stood to Steve Binns since 1979.
Sokwakhana Zazini became the fourth reigning world U18 champion to win gold in Tampere, but his victory here in the 400m hurdles was a completely different race to the one he won in Nairobi last year when taking his first global title.
The South African won by almost three seconds in the Kenyan capital last year. Here in Tampere, however, little more than half a second separated the first four men across the line.
Zazini had a slight lead over Qatar’s Bassem Hemeida as they negotiated the final two barriers and he scrapped his way to the finish line to win in 49.42, his fastest time at sea level.


Championship records for Duplantis and Diaz

It is a measure of their calibre when Cuba’s Jordan Diaz and Sweden’s Armand Duplantis set championship records but are left feeling unsatisfied.
Both athletes went to Tampere as the overwhelming favourites in their respective events – Diaz in the triple jump, Duplantis in the pole vault – but they had also hoped to challenge the world U20 records.
The jumping duo were competing at the same time and were as dominant as one another. Diaz led from the outset, jumping 16.84m and 16.91m before breaking the championship record with 17.15m in round three. After a big foul in the fourth round, he matched his winning distance in round five before ending with a foul.
France collected the other two triple jump medals. Martin Lamou picked up an injury during warm-up but got in a valid jump of 16.44m which proved to be enough for silver, while Jonathan Seremes took bronze with 16.18m.

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