Two British medals as USA top medal table on final day in Cali
In a highly successful World Under-20 Championships came to a conclusion at Cali in Colombia on Saturday night, Britain finished 17th on the medal table but they did finish the final day with two medals.
It was close at the top as USA (7 golds, 4 silver, 4 bronze) and Jamaica (6, 7, 3) edged Ethiopia (6, 5, 1) though Ethiopia had a stunning final day winning successive four gold medals in the final four individual events on the programme.
USA's men indeed only went top in the medal tables due to successes in the last two events going top due to taking gold in the men's 4x400m in 3:04.47 from Jamaica's 3:05.72 with Canada winning bronze in 3:06.50.
A few minutes earlier USA with a team including 800m winner Roisin Willis and Shawnti Jackson, daughter of world 400m hurdles champion Bershawn who completed a medal set after a third in the 100m and silver in the sprint relay won the 4x400m easily in 3:28.06.
Jamaica took silver in 3:31.59 and they finished just ahead of Britain (3:31.86).
The British team led off by 400m champion Yemi Mary John also had Jessica Astill, Orphelia Pye and Etty Sisson in their squad and they finished over a second clear of Finland's national record 3:33.15.
Britain had earlier won their second individual medal of the championships through Ethan Hussey in the 800m.
After a slow start to the race (54.96 at 400m), the event burst into life when Noah Kibet kicked hard 250m out but he ultimately faded as fast-finishing Ethiopian Ermias Girma won in 1:47.36 with Algerian Heithem Chenitef's 1:47.61 just getting the better of Hussey's 1:47.65.
The Leeds athlete had finished sixth in the earlier 1500m in a rare attempted middle distance double for a Briton in this Championships.
Sam Reardon, who had set a big 1:46.80 PB in the semis finished a fine fifth in 1:48.33.
Ethiopia also went one-two in the women's 5000m as Medina Eisa (15:29.71) out-kicked Melknat Wudu (15:30.06) and Ugandan Prisca Chesang (15:31.17).
They also did the same feat in the steeplechase as Samuel Duguna (8:37.92) defeated Samuel Firewu (8:39.11) as Moroccan Saleheddine Ben Yazide (8:40.62) as the leading Kenyan Emmanuel Wafula was only sixth.
Ethiopia and Kenya also fought out a predictable battle in the women's 1500m with Birke Haylom's championships record 4:04.27 just getting the better of Brenda Chebet's 4:04.64 PB.
The battle for third went the other way with Kenya's Purity Chepkirui (4:07.64) ahead of Mebriht Mekonen.
American Addison Wiley (4:11.43) was the best of the rest.
Estonian Karmen Bruus won the women's high jump with a 1.95m leap as Britt Weerman – with a Dutch under-20 record and Angelina Topic, the daughter of former European champion Dragutin who both cleared 1.93m.
Jamaica maintained their women's sprints dominance with a one-two in the 100m hurdles as Kerrica Hill's Championships record 12.77 (2.0) gave her a metre win over Alexis James' PB 12.87.
Hill's time moved her to fifth all-time on the world under-20 lists and gave her her second gold as she had run the third leg in Jamaica's world record setting 4x100m team.
Anna Toth set a Hungarian under-20 record of 13.00 to take bronze.
Uzbekistan's Sharifa Davronova, who is only 15 years old, easily won the triple jump with a world under-20 lead of 14.04m (0.0) with France's Sohane Aucagos (13.38m (-0.1)) and Australian Tina Boras (13.30 (-0.1)) taking the other medals.
In what has been a good championships for Germany, Marius Karges (65.55m) and Mika Sosna (63.88m) led a one-two in the discus as Ukraine's Mykhailo Brudin took bronze with a 63.30m PB.
Sosna, who injured himself when setting his world under-20 record of 71.37m in June, actually led with his opening round throw until Karges threw 63.91m in the fourth round though his winning effort came in the last round.
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