Gemili and Johnson-Thompson top podium as GB finish 5th on points and 8th in the medals.
The World Junior Championships in Barcelona last week was eventful for team GB, with Olympians-to-be, Adam Gemili and Katarina Johnson-Thompson leading the team by example. After the quickest qualifications in both rounds, Gemili lowered the Championship Best to 10.05 to join Christian Malcolm, Mark Lewis-Francis and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey on the list of previous GB winners. Along with Gemili, Chijindu Ujah finished 6th in the final with a new PB of 10.39. In the women’s 100m, Sophie Papps finished 6th in her final in a time of 11.54, while Rachel Johncock finished 4th in her semi.
GB’s sprinting prospects were also strong in the 200m too. David Bolarinwa equalled his best of 20.69 to finish 6th in the final, while Dina Asher-Smith and Desiree Henry both reached the final – a new PB of 23.50 for Asher-Smith to finish 7th, while Henry narrowly missed out on a medal, but ran a season’s best of 23.28 seconds. Josh Street made the semi-final with a best of 21.30 in his heat.
Despite the strong squads, both 4x100m teams ended up disappointed. The women’s quartet failed to get the baton round, and the men’s team fumbled changeovers to finish dead last in a time of 43.61 before later being disqualified.
Not to be outdone by Gemili, Johnson-Thompson won the gold in the long jump, while also competing in the 100mh. The Liverpool Harriers athlete managed a PB of 13.48 in the sprint hurdles, while James Gladman just missed out on a medal, finishing 4th in the 100mh with a time of 13.37. In the long jump, Johnson-Thompson PB’d with 6.51m to top her qualifying group. She then leapt out to a huge 6.81m to take gold. However, Jazmin Saywers deserves special mention, jumping the furthest out of the distances that were wind-legal. Her first round effort saw her go out to a PB of 6.67m – a World Junior Lead this year. In the men’s long jump, Elliot Safo finished 6th in the final with a jump of 7.51m. Sadly for Katie Byers, she failed to clear her opening height in the women’s pole vault.
Jessica Judd also provided one of GB’s better performances of the week, setting new PB’s in the 800m – where she just missed out on gold in a time of 2.00.96, and the 1500m – finishing 5th in a time of 4.09.93. Emily Dudgeon and Jennifer Walsh accompanied Judd in her finals, with Dudgeon finishing 6th after setting a PB of 2.02.32 in her semi in the 800m, and Walsh setting a B of 4.12.96 to finish 8th in the 1500m final. 7
Emily Gorecka also made the podium, finishing 3rd in the 3000m with a new PB of 9.09.43. Fellow Brit, Laura Muir finished 16th in a time of 9.40.81. In the 3000s/c, Pippa Woolven was 9th, her best time being 10.19.29, while Zak Seddon equalled her placing with a time of 8.45.18. Ben Waterman finished 7th in his 800m semi, while Sean Molloy failed to progress from the first round in the 800m, along with Charlie Grice in the men’s 1500m.
Matti Mortimore (19th), Shadine Duquemin (11th), Nick Miller and Michael Painter (both 13th) all suffered disappointment, throwing far below their bests and failing to qualify for the final.
However, Sophie McKinna finished 5th in the women’s shot putt final with a best effort of 15.98m, and Abbi Carter threw a PB of 60.73m in qualification for the women’s hammer, and then finished 12th in the final.
All in all, a positive week for the British Juniors and all will be using this as a platform to look towards the next Olympics, while for Gemili and Johnson-Thompson their focus now turns to London at the end of the month.
Success at the international junior record doesn’t always guarantee senior success however, demonstrated most clearly with Harry Aikines-Aryeetey’s 100m success in Beijing in 2006. After the Brit topped the podium, Yohan Blake found himself in 3rd place. There now is a big role reversal, with Blake having a very real chance of taking gold in London, while Aikines-Aryeetey will have to watch the 100m from a distance. Similarly, Mark Lewis-Francis showed a lot of promise as a junior, setting a Championship Best in the process of winning gold, but with a few dormant years as a sprinter. While Christian Malcolm is probably the best senior record out of the sprints, after winning both the 100m and 200m in 1998, he would go on to feature in several finals in world sprinting. However, other cases of dominance are shown, with Veronica Campbell(-Brown) winning both sprint titles in 2000. She would continue to be World and Olympic Champion in the years to come. Elena Isinbaeva also would go on to break the pole vault world record after winning as a junior, and Blanka Vlasic would win the WJC high jump twice in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Other world greats who have won a WJC crown include Valarie Adams, Carolina Kluft, LaShawn Merritt, Kaliese Spencer, Kirani James, David Rudisha and Sally Pearson. While of course, Usain Bolt won the 200m title in 2002 and would go on to become one of the biggest names in the history of sport.
Some of the best athletics clashes we see today occurred at a junior level – Alison Felix finishing 5th and Sanya Richards 3rd in the 2002 200m final, and Meseret Defar getting the better of Tirunesh Dibaba and Vivian Cheruiyot over 5000m in the same year. In 2002 we also saw Lashinda Demus beat Melanie Walker into second over 400mh, a rivalry that rages fiercely today. Another hurdles clash saw the future world record holder Dayron Robles lose out to this year’s world leader Aries Merrit, in the 110mh in 2004 too.
For some athletes, the events they compete in as a junior will be the event they do as a senior. Italian long jumper, Andrew Howe won the 200m title and competed in the event at the 2004 Olympics and the 2005 World Championships, before moving fully to long jump. Britain’s own Sarah Claxton finished 4th in the long jump in 1998, but 10 years later she would feature in the 100mh Olympic final. In the same year, Frenchman Leslie Djhone failed to make the long jump final but would appear in Olympic and World Championship 400m finals in the years to come.
Other world leading seniors who failed to win a WJC title include Kenenisa Bekele, Mo Farah, Jess Ennis, Steve Hooker, Liu Xiang, Michael Frater, Bershawn Jackson, Abubaker Kaki, Christine Obergfoll, Andreas Thorkildsen, Alison Felix, Sanya Richards and Dayron Robles. So while some greats established their dominance on the world stage at an early age, it’s not always necessary to be the best as a youth or junior athlete in order to be the best as a senior – although it would be a great stepping stone arrive in the ranks of the seniors.
