A round-up of the second day of IAAF World Youth Championships action which also saw a number of British athletes progress and 15-year-old Christopher Taylor run 45.30 for 400m

USA’s Candace Hill clocked 11.08 to break the IAAF World Youth Championships 100m record when winning gold in Cali, Colombia, on Thursday.

The 16-year-old, who had been the clear favourite going into the event thanks to the 10.98 (2.0m/s) world youth best she ran in June, managed to deal with the pressure that comes with being world No.1, cruising through the rounds to eventually win the final by 0.11 in still conditions ahead of Trinidad and Tobago’s Khalifa St. Fort.

“I’m a real world champion,” she said. “It’s so amazing. This means the world to me. Winning a gold medal for Team USA; I’m just so, so thankful.

“That is the single most nervous I’ve ever been,” she added, reflecting on the final. “I was just telling myself to stay relaxed, stay composed, focus and run your best.”

St. Fort, who is coached by four-time Olympic and four-time world sprint medallist Ato Boldon, went quicker in each round and secured silver with her 11.19 PB in the final, while bronze was won by USA’s Jayla Kirkland with 11.41.

Britain’s Hannah Brier ran 11.66 for sixth in the final, having earlier run 11.39 when winning her heat to equal the senior Welsh record held by Sallyann Short and Elaine O’Neill.

“I had a great start and I was in front. I was just thinking, ‘wow’,” she said. “I lost balance a bit but you know what, I made a world final and that is what I came to do. I’ve also got a PB and equalled the Welsh senior record so I was over the moon with the time earlier.

“I have learned that I need to compose myself a bit better in the future,” she added. “It’s been quite hard with three races because I am not usually used to it but I’ll learn from this.”

Germany’s Niklas Kaul and Cuba’s Maykel Demetrio Masso also both broke the championship records when claiming the gold medals in their respective events. Kaul achieved a world youth best of 8002 points to dominate the decathlon, while Masso was one of two athletes to better the eight-metre mark in the long jump competition and took the title after his 8.05m leap.

France’s Ludovic Besson, who had led the decathlon overnight and set a total of eight PBs, secured silver with his 7678-point PB as bronze was won by Estonia’s Hans-Christian Hausenberg with 7657.

Britain’s Sam Talbot produced a number of PB performances on the second day of action to finish 21st with 6215 points after having lost out on points on day one through his disqualification in the 400m. He ran a 13.79 110m hurdles PB, threw 35.93m in the discus and cleared a big PB of 4.00m in the pole vault, before throwing a 53.64m PB in the javelin.

Masso had faced a closer battle for the title in the long jump and after he improved his lead in the fourth round, Australia’s Darcy Roper saved his best until last and leapt out to an 8.01m PB for silver. Bagging bronze was Brazil’s Eberson Silva, who finished third with 7.76m.

“I worked very hard in my preparation,” commented the Cuban. “I stayed focused for every jump.”

Two finals in girls’ throwing events also took place on Thursday and USA’s Sophia Rivera competed in both. She threw 17.93m to finish as runner up to Germany’s Julia Ritter who managed an 18.53m PB to win the shot, while she also finished eighth in a javelin final won by Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi with a 60.35m PB. Britain’s Emma Hamplett finished ninth with 47.56m. Montenegro’s Kristina Rakocevic achieved the first medal double of the championships, throwing 17.49m to bag bronze in the shot and add that to her discus silver from the day before.

Maribel Vanessa Caicedo sprinted to victory in the 100m hurdles and with her win she claimed Ecuador’s first ever gold medal at the World Youths. Her winning PB time of 13.04 saw her beat USA’s Brittley Humphrey with a 13.22 PB, while bronze went to France’s Sarah Koutouan who ran 13.29.

Britain’s Alicia Barrett clocked 13.52 to finish sixth in the final after having run a UK under-18 record of 13.40 in the semi finals. Her placing in the final was one spot ahead of pre-event favourite Alexis Duncan of the US who had stormed to a time of 12.95 – missing the world youth best by just 0.01 – to win her semi final. She clocked 13.56 in the final after hitting a hurdle.

Earlier on and Christopher Taylor of Jamaica had impressed in the 400m semi finals – the 15-year-old clocking 45.30 to win the first. That time, which improves his own world age-15 best, puts him sixth on the world youth all-time list between a certain Kirani James and Usain Bolt. The final takes place on Friday.

A number of British athletes were also among those to progress in their respective events on day two – Alex Yee booking his spot in the 3000m final after 8:28.18 for fifth in the first round, Jake Norris managing the automatic qualifying mark in the hammer and Sabrina Sinha and Harriet Knowles-Jones making it through to the 1500m final as Bahrain’s Dalila Abdulkadir Gosa went quickest with 4:18.61.

Carys McAulay finished as runner up to Gadese Ejara in the first 800m heat, clocking 2:07.74 behind the Ethiopian’s 2:06.26. McAulay’s was the fourth quickest time of the first round, with athletes returning for the semi finals on Friday evening.

Catherine Reid (53.20) and Hannah Williams (53.52), the sister of European and Commonwealth 200m silver medallist Jodie, both ran PBs to make it into the 400m final.

For full results see iaaf.org. IAAF World Youth Championships action continues on Friday with the heptathlon 100m hurdles at 9.30am local time, 3.30pm in the UK

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