Sule Utura of Ethiopia celebrates winning the Women's 5000m Final (© Getty Images)
putter David Storl set the IAAF World Junior Championships alight with a massive winning throw on the first night of action in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
After the 17-year-old secured victory with his fifth-round throw of 20.31m, in the final round, his 6kg shot soared out to 21.08m to put him at fourth on the world all-time junior list.
Storl, the World Youth champion, was just 10 centimetres short of his national junior record going into the final round, but then excelled himself with the best throw by any junior for four years.
He still has another full season after this in which to attack Croatia’s Edis Elkasevic’s World junior record of 21.96m set in 2002.
Storl had started slowly, recording a no-throw and then two marks below 20 metres as Croatia’s Marin Premeru with 19.93m took the lead at halfway.
“At the start of the competition, it was a bit cold, but then everything started to go perfectly,” he said.
It required two giant throws at the end to win and after Russia’s Aleksandr Bulanov snatched silver in the last round with 20.14m, Storl said: “I came here with the intention of winning a medal of any colour, not necessarily gold.”
Utura brilliance
Ethiopia’s Sule Utura confirmed her potential as one of the most exciting young distance talents in the world when winning the first track title of these championships.
Even coming from a country that is a conveyor belt of running phenomenon, the 18-year-old was beginning to stand out when she finished fourth in the junior race at last year’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Here, she used a last kilometre of 2:48 to beat the youngest of the three running Dibaba sisters, Genzebe, into second place.
Utura’s winning time of 16:15.59 was more than a minute outside her PB set in Oslo earlier this year, but with finishing speed like hers, she could afford to take it easy over the first three and a half kilometres.
She, Dibaba and Kenya’s Nelly Chebet and Lucia Kamene Muangi were to the fore for much of the opening very slow seven laps. The kilometres were passed in 3:28.46, 6:58.25 and 10:19.65 before Chebet injected a dramatic burst with just less than four laps to go. It left the non-Africans in the race chasing as the two Kenyans and two Ethiopians went away.
Ethiopia held the edge over their neighbours in this four-way battle, but Chebet and Muangi were still within striking distance at the bell.
However, it was Utura who added gold to the bronze she won in the 3000m at last year’s World Youth Championships.
She said: “I was happy with the slow pace early in the race. I had confidence in my finishing speed. I knew one of us – me or Genzebe – would win. It did not matter which of us finished first. This is the biggest success of my career.”
The name Dibaba once again appears on a championship medal, but this time it will not belong to Tirunesh, the world 5000m record-holder, or Ejegayehu. Genzebe, who won the world junior cross-country title in March, was less than a second adrift with 16:16.75, with Chebet third in 16:17.96.
The silver medallist explained she had benefited from some considerable advice. “I live with my sisters Tirunesh and Ejegayehu and they help me a lot with their advice," she said.
No trouble for Kaki
Arguably the biggest name on show at these championships had little difficulty in qualifying through his first-round heat. Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki Khamis, who set a World Junior record in the 800m earlier this year, eased into the semi-finals of the two-lap event with a time of 1:50.92 in the first heat.
Kaki was near the front for most of the way and looked controlled as he led down the home straight for the final time.
The 19-year-old, whose time of 1:42.69 in Oslo last month was the quickest in the world for five years by an athlete of any age, said afterwards: “I am happy with my first race, though it is too hot for me today. I am expecting to win the 800 metres gold here.”
Germany’s Sebastian Keiner, who is second on the world lists for 2008, more than three seconds behind Kaki, also went through without mishap, finishing third in his heat.
World youth champion Geoffrey Kibet qualified only as a fastest loser after finishing fourth in a heat which produced the fastest four times of the round.
Kibet took the lead down the back straight and then stretched away, although he then suffered a scare as he was overhauled in the home straight by a trio led by Italy’s Giordano Benedetti, who clocked 1:49.71.
Thankful that Kaki decided not to run in the heats of the 1500m, for which he had originally been entered, 12 metric milers qualified for the final, led by the quickest overall, James Kiplagat Magut.
With the first two heats won in 3:48 and 3:52 respectively, the athletes in the third and final race, sensibly set off at a faster pace and provided the fastest three non-automatic qualifiers.
American sprinters lead the way
American junior champion Terrell Wilks was the quickest to advance to Wednesday’s 100m final, but there was heartbreak for his compatriot, Antonio Sales, who was disqualified for causing the second false start in his semi-final.
Wilks was timed at 10.37 into a headwind, whereas the winner of the second semi, South Africa’s Wilhelm van der Vyver ran 10.38 with a much kinder wind gauge reading.
Wilks was far from impressed though. He admitted afterwards: “I am not happy at all with my semi-final race. I had a bad start, but I got into the final – that’s what really counts. I am still expecting to win.”
Jamaica’s Yohan Blake won the third semi with 10.42 to set up what could be a close final.
American Jeneba Tarmoh goes into the women’s 100m final as favourite, backing up her 11.21 from earlier this year by becoming the quickest in the semi-finals.
She won the third heat with 11.38 into a wind of 0.5m/s. However, Britain’s World Youth bronze medallist Ashlee Nelson suggested she could challenge with her semi-final win in 11.43 (-0.7m/s). Bahamas’ Sheniqua Ferguson took the other semi in 11.56 with a neutral wind reading.
Aydin is quickest 800m qualifier
The 45 starters for the first round of the women’s 800m were counting their blessings that Kenya’s Pamela Jelimo, the 18-year-old who has dominated the event at senior level this year, was not in their midst.
In the absence of the World Junior record-holder, who has elected to concentrate instead on the Olympics, Merve Aydin of Turkey was the quickest in the line-up. She looked assured in qualifying first from her heat in 2:06.89, the fastest time of the round.
World youth silver medallist Alison Leonard of Britain, the second-quickest in the field, also went through in third place from her heat.
Rebryk dominant on way to final
European junior javelin champion Vira Rebryk appears on course to add a global title to her growing list of honours after qualifying with the furthest throw by four metres.
The Ukrainian, who was also second in the IAAF World Youth Championships in 2005, demonstrated her experience with a throw of 58.66m. However, with a personal best of 61.64m set earlier this year, she should be able to step up her game in the final if she needs to.
Nikola Ogrodnikova of Czech Republic (54.48m) and Finland’s Jelena Jaakkola (54.30m) were the only others to gain the automatic qualification for the final of 54.00m.
In the triple jump qualification, Josleidy Ribalta of Cuba came out on top of a quality field which included the best four juniors in the world this year.
Ribalta was just 26 centimetres shy of her personal best as she leaped 13.61m. Meanwhile, her compatriot Dailenys Alcantara, who beat her into second in last year’s World Youth Championships, was second-best with 13.60m.
In the women’s high jump, Hannelore Desmet of Belgium and World Youth champion Natalya Mamlina of Russia were among the qualifiers for the final.
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Paul Halford for the IAAF
