Maddy
What a champs. What a place. What a world. Deadly days three and four in TrackTown brought more outstanding PB's, more nail-biting medal drama, and even more calls to lost property. Time to munch on the second SPIKES TrackTown wrap...
Main pic: Maddison Coates wins her 200m heat with a smile for all of Oceania. This is how every victory should be celebrated.
Long shot
Getty Images, take a bow. Oregon-based photographer Jonathan Ferrey took this beautiful shot of flamboyant US long jumper Travonn White competing in the long jump final on day three.
In the pit, Wang Jianan, 17, showed why he's in world's top 20 of any age. He won gold with a leap of 8.08m ahead of team-mate Lin Qing.
Poles apart
Imagine waking up on the day of the big dance to find out you've got no shoes. That's exactly what happened (kind of) to Estonia's Reena Koll, 17, who had to borrow someone else's poles to compete in pole vault qualifying.
The good news is, she made it to the ball. And set an Estonian record of 4.20m. Yet such was the quality of the final, it was only enough for 8th place. Canny Russian Alena Lutkovskaya peaked late to pip the USA's Desiree Freier to gold.
Played out before a boisterous East Stand, there were seven lifetime bests, including a New Zealand national record for bronze medallist Eliza McCartney: 4.45m, and a championship record for the champ Lutkovskaya: 4.50m.
Throwing smart
This is Valarie Allman, 19. She can probably throw further than you; is almost definitely smarter than you – and she can dance!
Allman is in her final year studying science, amongst other things, at Stanford University – where 39,000 applicants compete for just over 2,000 places, making it harder to get into than both Harvard and Princeton.
In her first year, she took up sprinting and jumping, and only changed to the discus so she could attend a spaghetti dinner held annually for throwers. And on day four, after launching her discus out to 56.75m, she won a world junior silver medal.
Tokyo drift
Just one Jamaican man, 200m bronze medallist Michael O'Hara, made it to an individual sprint final. Japan had FIVE.
Yoshihide Kiryu won 100m bronze and Nobuya Kato (hiding above) won 400m silver, while Kaisei Yui, Yuki Koike and Masaharu Mori all made their respective finals.
And in day four's 4x100m relay heats, Japan went round the big red track in 39.23: the fastest junior time of the year.
Crying game
He wasn't the first to break down in tears at this champs but he was perhaps the most spectacular. The 19-year-old sprint hurdler Wilhem Belocian (from Guadeloupe and competing for France) won world junior bronze at the last edition in Barcelona two years ago.
This time, he led from the b of bang to the white of the finish line, destroying the world junior record and setting an impressive new benchmark of 12.99 for up-coming hurdlers.
The sobbing Belocian was so elated, he earned the distinction of being the first gold medallist unable to complete the post-race interview on the big screen.
Colour run
Not many people can pull off wearing CMYK. Angela Tenorio can. Hero of TrackTown – day one celebrated her shiny 100m silver medal by going for a new one in the 200m.
After breaking the world junior record for wearing nine garments and six colours, 18-year-old Tenorio won bronze. Even more impressively, the USA's 16-year-old Kaylin Whitney became the youngest gold medallist of the champs, with 200m gold in 22.82.
Pre's rock
SPIKES used the break in play during day three to pay homage to Steve Prefontaine, at the spot where he crashed his car and died in the Oregon hills.
It's a naughty little incline to the plaque festooned with race bibs, spikes, drawings and mementos from all over the world. "There may be men who can run to my shrine, but they're going to have to get DOMS to do it," he might have said.
Also present: a Starbucks iTunes voucher (for those free downloads in heaven) and a Pokemon card.
The deadliest day
It's not every day you see an Estonian decathlete re-enact a Nigerian sprinter's post-race interview in a track-themed pizza restaurant. But that's exactly what we witnessed on day three in Eugene.
The real Ejowvokoghene Divine Oduduru, 17, was on top-form, too. After qualifying from his 200m heat he told SPIKES: "the semi-final will be sweet, it will be beautiful. It will be great."
It was. Oduduru ran a PB 20.66 to qualify for the 200m final. On day four, he fulfilled the prophecy that made him such a viral hit. Despite having the biggest race of his life at 8.10pm, he took one for the team by running anchor in the 4x100m heats just before 7pm.
Oduduru's blistering final leg saw Nigeria through to the final, and he then produced a stunning 20.25 to take world junior silver.
Back to back flips
Reigning world junior champ Ashraf Amgad Elseify of Qatar had two things on his checklist on day four:
1. Win the hammer throw by five metres.
2. Perform 12 backflips on the victory lap.
Done and done.
