USA's Tate Taylor and Mia Maxwell swept both 100m titles on Thursday night in Eugene, with Jake Odey-Jordan fifth in the men's final, while Thea Brown missed out on a heptathlon medal by a narrow margin.

Tate Taylor announced himself as the outstanding under-20 sprinter in the world on Thursday night, breaking 10 seconds to win the men's 100m title in 9.94, a run that moved him into joint fifth on the under-20 world all-time list and made him the first American to win the world U20 100m crown since Noah Lyles in 2016.

Jamaica's Gary Card, the only other sub-10 under-20 sprinter this year, took silver in 10.05 as South Africa's Marko Ferreira claimed bronze in 10.16 — a podium finish that extended South Africa's run of producing a men's 100m medallist at four consecutive World U20 Championships.

There was a solid showing from Great Britain's Jake Odey-Jordan, who came home fifth in the final in 10.31.

"There were some tweaks I was looking to fix after the semi-finals and I think I executed those tweaks pretty well," said Taylor. "Once I got out of the top end, I knew it was going to be a good race, for sure."

Maxwell then completed the American double in the women's final, winning in 11.14 to end an eight-year run of Jamaican gold medallists in the event and give the USA their first women's 100m champion since Candace Hill in 2016.

World leader Shanoya Douglas of Jamaica settled for silver, while Kelly Doualla, fresh from her sensational European U18 100m gold in Rieti last month, claimed bronze in 11.27 at the age of just 16 to become the first Italian to win a world U20 medal in the event.

It was in the heptathlon, though, that Great Britain came closest to a medal of their own on an agonising night for Brown. The Sale Harriers athlete, who had led the competition after the opening two events on Wednesday, produced a personal best of 5826 points across the two days – going No.5 on the UK all-time rankings – but was edged out of bronze by just 24 points, Switzerland's Anna Pfister sneaking on to the podium with 5850 — also a lifetime best.

Brown set PBs in the 100 hurdles, shot and javelin over the two days but was edged out of a podium place in the final event.

Gold went to Finland's Enni Virjonen, who improved her own world under-20 lead to 6214 points, the best score to win a world under-20 title since Great Britain's Niamh Emerson set the standard with 6253 back in 2018, while Estonia's Mia Mireia Uusorg claimed silver on 5961.

The field events produced plenty of quality elsewhere, too. France enjoyed a big night in the women's long jump, with Djelika Diarra adding to her own world U20 lead with a personal best of 6.52m to take gold, Greece's Evelyn Mitropoulou claiming a historic silver with 6.44m and France's Soudatou Niang completing a French one-three with a bronze-medal leap of 6.34m.

British long jumper Daisy Snell was a fine sixth with a best of 6.22m (0.7).

In the women's discus, China's Su Yixin produced a world U20 lead and personal best of 61.06m in the final round to beat compatriot rival Jaslene Massey of the USA, who claimed silver with 58.41m before dashing back out for the shot put final less than 20 minutes later.

That shot put final went the way of Nigeria's Jessica Oji, who backed up her senior Commonwealth Games silver medal with world U20 gold, throwing 18.08m to become the first Nigerian woman to win a world U20 throws medal. Ecuador's Belsy Jenniffer Quiñonez claimed a historic silver of her own with a national U20 record of 17.90m, while Germany's Emily Scherf completed the podium with 17.23m.

Earlier in the day the Great Britain & Northern Ireland mixed 4x100m relay team broke the world under-20 record in their heat.

The quartet, consisting of Divine Iheme, Savannah Morgan-McKenzie, Matthew Ajayi and Sophie Thomas, clocked 41.60, breaking the record set by Australia (41.64) just minutes earlier.

“We had a game plan and we executed it perfectly, but we know that in the final we can go a lot quicker,” said Ajayi.

Morgan-McKenzie added: “We have such a close-knit team, and you see the connection on the track and that is key.”