The third day of action at the 2026 World Athletics U20 Championships on Friday in Eugene offered up another glimpse of the resilience of the future stars of the sport as Team USA’s Jayden DeLeon and Kenya’s Emmanuel Kiprono surged to gold in a pair of stunning performances on the track.
Kiprono was unstoppable with a 7:28.28 championship record in the men 3,000m that brought the Hayward Field crowd to its feet as he briefly flirted with the U20 world mark in the distance — coming just 0.09 off the record set by Yomif Kejelcha back in 2016. France’s Alois Abraham took second in 7:47.79 as Japan’s Ojiro Honda grabbed bronze in 7:48.49.
“I went back to training, did well, and got a chance to represent Kenya at the world championships,” Kiprono said. “I am so excited that it worked for me today and I won the gold medal. When I woke up this morning, I was feeling so good and I knew something special was coming.”
In the final event, DeLeon stunned in the men’s 400m, slipping by teammate Quincy Wilson in championship record 44.47 for the gold after launching himself through the final turn and pulling from behind and bolting past South Africa’s Leendert Koekemoer, who held the lead.
Wilson took silver in 44.62 while Koekemoer was third in 44.96.
Poland’s Anastazja Kuś won the women’s 400m in 51.06 on a strong final kick on the last 100m to take gold over Team USA’s Ataja Stephane-Vazquez (51.36) and Guyana’s Tianna Springer (51.76). Kuś was in second behind Stephane-Vazquez heading into the final turn and shifted gears to take the lead and win in the closing moments of the race.
Ethiopia’s Almaz Yohannis was simply dominant in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase with a 9:15.81 victory by nearly 15 seconds in a U20 world lead over teammate Wosane Asefa, who finished second in 9:30.50 while Kenya’s Anatasha Cheptoo got bronze in 9:37.18.
The world leading marks continued to be a theme of the night as South Africa’s Jan-Hendrik Heymans tossed a 80.50m U20 world lead in the men’s javelin for gold over India’s Ashish Yadav (74.09m) and Dominica’s Addison James (73.89) while Jamaica’s Michael-Andre Edwards soared to a 17.08m victory in the men’s triple jump — for another U20 world lead during day three’s action. Team USA’s Miles Nesmith took silver with a 16.79m jump while China’s Zhuoyue Wang got the bronze in 16.36m.
China’s Jiawei China hurled a 79.16m throw on his final attempt to win the men’s hammer over Team USA’s Kayden Hulet (77.55) and Great Britain’s Wyatt Larkins (75.38) who took home the bronze.
