Spikes08 Jan 2015


Making a splash

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Making a splash

With no major junior championship this year, many of the stars of Eugene 2014 will be thrust into the cauldron of international senior competition. Here are eight to look out for in 2015.

Mary Cain

Mary Cain

In last year’s world juniors, Cain lived up to her billing as the 2013 IAAF Newcomer of the Year title by claiming gold in the 3000m with a 8.58.48 personal best.

The previous year, aged just 17, Cain finished second in the 1500m at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and thus qualified for the world champs, making her the youngest ever American to compete at the event. The experience she gained in Moscow, where the Alberto Salazar-trained University of Portland student placed 10th, should serve her well on the senior circuit.

Ashraf Amgad Elseify

Ashraf Amgad Elseify

At the 2012 world juniors, Qatar’s Elseify blew away the competition in the hammer throw with a world junior record of 85.57m. That throw added more than two metres to the previous record and saw Elseify take gold with a winning margin of nearly nine metres – the largest ever in any throwing event in world junior history.

He retained his title in Eugene, throwing just shy of his record with an 84.71m, prompting one of the best celebrations of the season. We're hoping to see more backflipping from the 19-year-old in 2015.

Kendell Williams

Kendell Williams

Williams is a multi-eventer, but at the world juniors she competed only in the 100m hurdles. In a hotly contested final, the University of Georgia student won gold in a championship record of 12.89.

It was an international title to go with the USATF junior 100m hurdle crown she won in an American junior record of 12.87 earlier the same month. In 2014, she also bagged the NCAA indoor pentathlon title with a record breaking 4,635 points, as well as the NCAA outdoor heptathlon crown to become a two-time First Team All-American. Not a bad year, then.

Wilhem Belocian

Wilhem Belocian

The young French hurdler enjoyed a mesmeric 2014. In March he set a new world junior indoor record in the 60m hurdles with a 7.48 at the French U20 championships. Then, in June, he broke the 110m hurdles world junior record with a 12.99 while winning gold in Oregon.

The 19-year-old, who was born and raised in Guadeloupe, also has bronze medals from the 2011 World Youth Championships and the 2012 world juniors, as well as a gold from the 2013 European U20 champs.

Anežka Drahotová

Anežka Drahotová

The Czech racewalker won gold at the 2013 European U20 Championships and claimed an impressive seventh-place at that year’s world champs, both over the 20km distance. 2014 contained no sign that Drahotová’s meteoric rise would abate.

At the world juniors in Oregon, the 19-year-old hot stepped her way to gold in the 10,000m racewalk in a world junior record of 42:47:25. Weeks later she claimed bronze in the (senior) European Championships in Zurich. At junior level, Drahotová has also competed in the 1500m and the 3000m steeplechase (both at the 2012 world juniors), and in international cycling competitions. Blimey.

Wang Jianan

Wang Jianan on his way to gold in the long jump at the IAAF World Junior Championships, Oregon 2014

Wang had competed in the multi-events earlier in his teenage years, but since focusing on the long jump, he has begun to find success. In Eugene last year he won his event by a canter; an 8.08m made him the only competitor to break the 8-metre mark at the championships, underlining his superiority.

In 2013, Wang jumped 7.95m to pick up his first international senior medal with gold at the Asian champs in Pune, India. He also competed at the world championships in Moscow, and though a 7.59m was underwhelming by his standards (his personal best is 8.10m) it could all be different in front of a home crowd in Beijing.

Dina Asher-Smith

Dina Asher-Smith

Asher-Smith's 100m gold in last year’s world juniors was another high-point in an impressive couple of years. A month after Eugene, she appeared at the European Championships in Zurich, where she ran 22.61 in the 200m semi-final – a time that put her in the world top 20 for the year. Unfortunately, her medal ambitions were dashed when she tore her hamstring in the final.

The Kings College University student does already have a senior medal to her name though; when she was just 17 she was part of the 4x100m British relay team that won bronze at the Moscow world champs. The sprinter also swept up at that year’s European U20 champs, claiming gold in the 200m and 4x100m.

Jirí Sýkora

Jirí Sýkora

The 19-year-old Czech won the decathlon at last year’s world juniors setting a championship record of 8135 points, holding off a marauding Aussie in the process.

That haul was a personal best junior decathlon score as well as a Czech junior record. It is also 980 points better than the best score senior world record holder Asthon Eaton achieved at that level. Watch this space.