Here is Justin Lagat’s day two report from Nairobi, Kenya and the IAAF World Under 18 Championships. Justin provides with a first person view of the event and his comments give us a nice highlight of the event. Remember, you can watch it each day via streaming video. Check for the info at www.iaaf.org.
Day 2 of the IAAF World U18 Championships; a cool day of exciting action on track
The second day of the IAAF world under 18 championships had a cool and pleasant weather almost all day with a few periods of sunshine coming through the clouds. Everything went on as scheduled.
However, even though it was much better than on the first day, the size of the crowd inside the stadium was less that what would be desired. But, it hopefully will keep on increasing each day, until, on the last two days being on a weekend, we should perhaps witness an almost full stadium. The Moi Sports Centre Kasarani Stadium has a capacity of 60,000 fans.
There was plenty of action on the track including the boys’ 3000m, girls’ and boys’ 400m hurdles, boys’ and girls’ 800m, girls’ and boys’ 400m semi-finals and girls’ 100m finals. But, it was also a day marred by disqualifications with notable ones being that of the girls’ 800m winner in heat 2 of the semi-finals, Ethiopia’s Netsanet Desta and the winner of boys’ 400m hurdles in heat 3 of the first round, Kenya’s David Saruni.
The first round of the boys’ 3000m in the morning served to forecast another epic battle between the Kenyans and the Ethiopians in the finals. Edward Zakayo of Kenya particularly depicted a tremendous form as he led the field in the second heat from gun to tape, seeming to be enjoying himself every inch of the race and even smiling at some point. Selemon Barega of Ethiopia won a relatively faster heat and will be joined by his compatriot, Milkesa Mengesha while Zakayo will be joined by Stanley Waithaka in the finals.
One other exciting track event in the morning was the girls’ 800m heats. Two Kenyans, Lydia Jeruto and Jackline Wambui, easily sailed through to the semi-finals, but the desquialification of one Ethiopian will not leave a level field in the expected battle between the two countries later on in the finals. Hirut Meshesha is the lone Ethiopian proceeding in this race. But the Ethiopia versus Kenya race is still on in the boys’ finals in the event as each country has two athletes already qualified for the finals; although it was not that easy for Noah Kiprono as he had to qualified by being one of the fastest looser.
Except for the girls’ 100m, the other finals that happened were all in the field competitions. Cuba won two medals in the boys’ long Jump event; Maikel Vidal won the gold while Lester Lescar took the silver. Andreas Busca of Romania won the bronze.
Germany’s Timo Northoff won the gold medal in the boys’ shot put (5kg). Mikhail Samuseu of Belarus won silver and South Africa’s Jonathan Lacer won the bronze. Zhekai Liu of China won gold in the boys’ Javelin Throw (700g), Johannes Schlebusch of South Africa came took silver while Qingshu Song of China settled for the bronze.
The girls’ 100m duel for the gold medal was a very tight one between Mizgin Ay of Turkey and Magdalena Stefanowicz of Poland as the two crossed the finish line registering the same time of 11.62. It took a little while before the final results were announced. Mizgin took the gold while Magdalena took the silver. Kevona Davis of Jamaica took the bronze.
