Okon and Almayew register prominent wins on Day 3 of World Under 20 championships in Lima

This is Justin Lagat’s column on day 3 of the 2024 World Athletics U 20 Championships. Justin is providing RunBlogRun readers a daily column on the exciting World U 20s, which you can watch on Peacock each and every session!

In another exciting evening of Athletics action on Day 3 of the Wu20 championships at the Estadio Atletico de la Videna, Ethiopia’s Sembo Almayew won the women’s 3000m steeplechase race to place her country on top of the medal table before South Africa’s Udeme Okon ran another spectacular men’s 400m final to push Australia further down to third place on the medal table.

Uganda’s Chekwemoi ensured it was a hard run from the start of the women’s 3000m steeplechase final as she took the field through the first 1000m in 3:05.00. Two Ethiopians, one Kenyan and one Ugandan soon remained in the leading pack.

Ethiopia’s Sembo Almayew and Uganda’s Loice Chekwemoi broke away in the last 1000m to battle for the top two medals while Kenya’s Diana Chepkemoi was in the no-man’s land trying her best to hold on to the bronze position with Firehiwot Gesese in hot pursuit.

In a new championship record of 9:12.71, Almayew won the race, followed by Chekwemoi in a new personal best of 9:18.84 –a reward for setting the pace. Also in a new PB, Chepkemoi finished third in 9:29.84.

The men’s 3000m flat race was a straight final, and the runners were hesitant to take on the race at the beginning. The first 1000m, crossed at 3:10.00, was interestingly slower than the time that the women had used to cross the 3000m Steeplechase race. It was a 1000m jog and a brutal 2000m race.

The last half of the race was dangerously crowded, fast, and characterized by a lot of jostling. At the bell, two Kenyans were in the lead but were soon swallowed into the huge pack on the back straight. Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen of Norway had the most vigorous finishing kick and crossed the finish line first in 8:20.56. Kenya’s Denis Kipkoech followed for silver in 8:20.79, while Edward Bird ran 8:21.00 to win the bronze medal.

Both the women’s and men’s 400m races featured as the last events of the evening. Lurdes Manuel of Czechia won gold in the women’s event by running 51.29 ahead of Dianna Proctor of Canada in 51.98 and Zaya Akins of the USA in 52.00.

OKon of South Africa won the men’s race in 45.69 ahead of Jayden Davis (46.08) and Sidi Njie (46.29), both from the USA.

In the first final of the day, Losif Kesidis won the first medal for Cyprus in the men’s Hammer Throw (6kg). It was a gold medal with a world U20 leading mark of 82.80m. Hungary’s Ronald Imre and Armin Szabados won silver and bronze after throwing 75.33m and 74.88m, respectively. These were also the first medals for Hungary at the championships.

USA’s Molly Haywood cleared a new personal best height of 4.47m to win the women’s Pole vault event, beating Magdalena Rauter of Austria and Tryphena Hewett of Australia, who both cleared 4.15m to silver and bronze medal positions, respectively.

In his fifth attempt, New Zealand’s Ethan Olivier jumped a new U20 area record of 17.01m to win the men’s Triple Jump. USA’s Karson Gordaon, in a PB of 16.74, settled for silver. Also in a new PB of 16.30, China’s Yinglong Ma won bronze.

Tom Tersek of Slovenia won gold in the men’s Javelin Throw after registering 76.81m. China’s Xiaobo Wang threw 75.50m to win the silver medal ahead of Ireland’s Oisin Joyce, who threw a new national u20 record of 73.89m to take the bronze medal.

Some thrilling semi-final events now leave fans in great anticipation for the finals.

Watching Torrie Lewis—the Oceania champion, Xiamen Diamond League winner, and three-time national champion for Australia—in the semi-finals of the women’s 200m showed the depth of the under-20 athletes in Lima. She won the third and final heat, while her compatriot Jessica Milat won the first heat.

South Africa’s Bayanda Walaza was back in the men’s 200m semi-final event after winning the gold medal in the 100m the previous day, and he ran the fastest qualification time in his heat. He is poised to be one of the big stars of the championships.