Eisa sets championship record and defends U20 world title over 5000 m in Lima | News | Lima 24

On a cool, crisp evening in the Peruvian capital on Tuesday (27), Ethiopian Medina Eisa put her rivals to shame and successfully defended her 5000m title, the highlight of the first day of action at the World Athletics Championships U20, Lima 24.

Eisa’s winning time of 14:39.71 beat Genzebe Dibaba’s championship record, which stood since 2010, by more than 28 seconds and put her well ahead of fellow countrywoman Mekedes Alemeshete. The two broke away from the field from the start and took turns setting the pace. They passed the 2000 m in 5:58.59, 40 metres ahead.

They had a 70-meter lead by the 3,000-meter mark, which they reached in 8:57.28, and they only extended it from there. Eisa broke away from her compatriot with three and a half laps to go and lapped most of the field to give Ethiopia gold in the women’s 5,000-meter race for the eighth time in the last nine editions.

“I am very happy with this victory and to have set a championship record after the Olympic Games,” said Eisa, who finished seventh in the 5000m in Paris. “I wanted to become champion, I have wanted to do that for months.”

Alemeshete followed in 14:57.44, while Uganda’s Charity Cherop took bronze with a personal best of 15:25.02.

The men’s 5000m was a very different race. Some early moves proved inconsequential and the final came down to a sprint with seven runners huddled together at the bell. As the competitors picked up the pace on the final bend, it was Kenya’s Andrew Kiptoo Alamisi who soon took off like a bird, sailing to victory in 13:41.14, ahead of Ethiopia’s Abdisa Fayisa (13:41.56) and Uganda’s Keneth Kiprop (13:41.73).

Australia were the undisputed winners in the mixed 4x400m final. The quartet of Jordan Gilbert, Bella Pasquali, Jack Deguara and Sophia Gregorevic controlled the race and crossed the finish line comfortably in first place with an Oceania record of 3:19.27. Poland took silver in 3:20.44, while China took bronze in 3:21.27 thanks to a strong final leg from Liu Yinglan.

It was no surprise that the Netherlands won gold in the men’s shot put for the first time in 24 years. However, it was not the thrower many had expected: Dutch U20 record holder Yannick Rolvink – who topped the entry list by more than a meter – finished fifth with 19.88m.

His teammate Jarno van Daalen shone the brightest. The 18-year-old improved his personal best by 36 cm when he reached 20.76 m in the first round. This best was unmatched in the following rounds, although South African JL van Rensburg came close, setting a personal best of 20.74 m in the final round to take silver. Germany’s Georg Harpf took bronze with 20.28 m.

After four completed competitions in the heptathlon, Croatian Jana Koscak leads the rankings with 3536 points. The 2022 U18 European champion supplemented her performance in the hurdles of 13.80 m and in the high jump of 1.81 m the previous day with 12.01 m in the shot put and 25.12 m over 200 m in the afternoon session.

Second overnight is Swiss Lucia Acklin, who shot up the rankings during the day after throwing 13.42m in the shot put and setting a personal best of 24.42 in the 200m, giving her 3472 points. Australian Mia Scerri is in third place with 3385 points, closely followed by Czech Adela Tkacova, who is fourth with 3351 points, thanks to her season’s best of 24.14 in the 200m.

In the women’s 100m semi-final, Jamaica’s Alana Reid was extremely impressive, winning with a time of 11.44 (-0.3 m/s). She let off the gas well after the finish line, beating Nigeria’s Justina Tiana Eyakpobeyan (11.56) and Aleksandra Stoilova of Australia (11.58), who also advanced. Kishawna Niles of Barbados and Britain’s Nia Wedderburn-Goodison were the fastest qualifiers, both running 11.39 in the first semi-final ahead of South Africa’s Viwe Jingqi (11.49). Germany’s Chelsea Kadiri won the third semi-final with a time of 11.52 ahead of Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands (11.59).

Thailand’s Puripol Bonsoon, who finished fourth in this competition two years ago, qualified fastest for the men’s 100m final. He ran 10.30 (-0.6 m/s) in the semi-final, beating South Africa’s Bradley Nkoana by a thousandth of a second. Jamaica’s Gary Card qualified third with 10.39.

Deandre Daley from Jamaica won the first semi-final with 10.34 (-0.9 m/s), while Japan’s Naoki Nishioka secured second automatic place with 10.43. South African Bayanda Walaza recovered from an early stumble and won the third semi-final with 10.33 (-0.2 m/s) ahead of Britain’s Teddy Wilson (10.35) and China’s He Jinxian (10.36), who also advanced.

China’s Wang Xiaobo led the men’s qualification with 73.83m, followed by Slovenia’s Tom Tersek with 73.37m and Germany’s Oskar Janicke (73.02m). Ukraine’s Illia Saievskyi was the only other thrower to surpass the automatic qualifying mark of 72.50m.

In the women’s pole vault qualification, the automatic qualifying mark of 4.25m was not required and four athletes cleared 4.10m without making a mistake. One jump was enough for American Molly Haywood to reach the final. She arrived at 4.10m and cleared it on her first attempt. She was joined by athletes such as Miia Tillmann of Estonia, Tryphena Hewett of Australia and Magdalena Rauter of Austria.

In the heats of the women’s 3000m steeplechase, favourite Sembo Almayew showed a dominant performance and won easily in 9:30.59 minutes ahead of Diana Chepkemoi from Kenya and Nancy Chepkwurui from Uganda (9:49.06 minutes). In the other heat, Firehiwot Gesese from Ethiopia won easily in 10:00.96 minutes ahead of Loice Chekwemoi from Uganda (10:01.85 minutes) and Sharon Chepkemoi from Kenya (10:07.59 minutes).

Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics