Eleven editions of the IAAF World Junior Championships have come and gone and Zambia has yet to get a medal at this level but Tonny Wamulwa and Racheal Nachula are representing their country's interests in Bydgoszcz and both athletes have a chance of climbing onto the podium.
Wamulwa is contesting the men's 5000m and Nachula is running in the women's 400m, both runners having cut their teeth at the World Junior Championships two years ago in Beijing.
Nachula has had a busy year and improved her own national record over one lap of track on three occasions, culminating in the 51.39 she ran at altitude at the African Championships in Addis Ababa. She stands third on this year's junior rankings for her event.
"I was disappointed that I didn't make the 400m final in Beijing two years ago but now I have set my sights higher. I will be very disappointed if I don't get a medal," said Nachula, who is a recipient of an International Olympic Solidarity Scholarship and based in Pretoria, South Africa.
"Getting a medal in Ethiopia in April was a big boost to my confidence as no Zambian woman had ever done that at the African Championships before. Now I hope to break new ground in Poland, although I've already had experience of racing the Nigerian girl (2008 leading 400m junior Folashade Abugan) who finished second ahead of me in Addis Ababa. She's going to be tough to beat," added the 18 year -old.
Wamulwa has improved in the last month to a national 3000m record of 7:49.51 and run 5000m in 13:25.58 to rank eighth on this year's world junior list at the time of writing.
"I finished seventh in Beijing so my aim is to do better than that but I know any Ethiopian or Kenyan in the race is going to be a very tough runner as well," said Wamulwa.
Zambia was one of the 48 nations that contested the first IAAF World Junior Championships in 1986. The country's best performance so far was eighth years ago in Santiago de Chile when Obed Mutanya, who was later to have a successful career while attending university in the United States, finished fourth in the 5000m.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
