Dexter Lee of Jamaica wins the 100m final (© Getty Images)
With only just one day to go to the opening of the 13th IAAF World Junior Championships here in Moncton, Canada, everything looks set for the 2010 edition of this 24-year-old competition to be one of the most memorable.
Moncton marks the second time the World Junior Championships are held in Canada after the city of Sudbury played host to the event back in 1988.
Close to 1500 athletes have already arrived (or will be arriving soon) in Moncton and will be delighted at the state of the art Mondo track at the University of Moncton, which was tested a couple of weeks ago at the Canadian National championships.
Several of these athletes, although still 19 years of age or under, are extremely experienced athletes and already well known by athletics fans worldwide. And some are here to make history in some sort or another.
Jamaica’s Dexter Lee, the season’s co-World Junior leader at 10.16 could become the first male sprinter to defend a World Junior title in the men’s 100m should he add a gold medal to the one he grabbed two years ago in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Lee will also compete in the men’s 200m – previously only three athletes achieved a sprint double at the World Junior Championships, namely Ato Boldon in 1992, Francis Obikwelu in 1996 and Christian Malcolm in 1998.
However, in order to become the first man in 12 years to achieve the sprint double Lee will face the strongest challenge in Grenada’s Kirani James, who will be aiming at achieving a slightly different unprecedented double.
17-year-old James, became the first male athlete ever to win a 200/400 double at the World Youth Championships last summer in Bressanone, Italy and is now back on track to try and achieve a the same exploit in the junior ranks.
James’ female counterpart, Jodie Williams of Great Britain also comes into Moncton with an impressive baggage of two World Youth sprint gold medals from last summer. Although she’s only just 16 years of age, Williams stands as the World junior leader in the 200 and holds the third fastest time of the year at 100, performances which one again position her in a favourable position for a medal.
Only two female athletes have achieved a 100/200m double at the World Junior Championships before, Veronica Campbell back in 2000 and Tezdzhan Naimova four years ago.
A lot is also expected from Trinidad and Tobago’s Jehue Gordon who stunned the world at last summer’s World Championships in Berlin. Gordon is the second fast 400m junior hurdler of all time and should the conditions be favourable, it is likely that fans will be treated to a World Junior record this coming week.
Cuba’s Dailenys Alcantara, also the defending World Junior champion from Bydgoszcz and winner of the women’s Triple Jump gold in Bressanone World Youths last year, is also in good position to add yet another gold to her resume and why not threaten the World Junior standard.
These are but a few athletes who will take centre stage at the World Junior Championships.
Interestingly only one man and ten women athletes have ever successfully defending their World junior titles in the history of the event, a piece of statistic which has high chances of changing come next week…
