The crowd here in Ostrava was treated to a phenomenal Boys High Jump competition in which eight of the twelve finalists improved on their personal bests and two athletes jumped a 2.22m World Youth leading performance.
It took China almost 20 years to find an heir to former World record holder Zhu Jianhua it now seems that the Asian country who will host next year’s Olympic Games has got two!
17-year-old Chen Wang became the second Chinese man to win a World Youth Championships title in two years after Haiqiang Huang set a Championship record 2.27m to win the Marrakech edition in 2005.
The Chinese won the gold medal on count-back his first time clearance at 2.22m prevailing over Sergey Mudrov’s second attempt clearance at the same height.
Josh Hall of Australia had the competition of his life as he improved his personal best from 2.12m to a massive 2.20m to secure the bronze medal.
The Australian had a little taste of victory when at 2.16m he shared the lead with Mudrov, Wang trailing in third position following one mistake at 2.16m.
Mudrov leaped in the lead with a first time clearance at 2.18m with Wang needing to efforts and moving to second and Hall needing three and moving down to third.
From then on, Wang’s was the one with the strongest nerves and made no mistakes at 2.20m and 2.22m securing his country’s first gold medal of the week.
LA
