As expected, gold went to the Netherlands in the men’s shot put on the first day of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru on Tuesday (27) evening.
But what came as a surprise was the gold medal went to 18-year-old Jarno Van Daalen who upstaged a line-up which included his teammate and world U20 leader Yannick Rolvink to win the title - and Europe’s first gold medal of the championships.
The second youngest thrower in the final produced a lifetime best of 20.76m with his first throw, a mark which went unchallenged until the penultimate throw of the final when South Africa’s JL Van Rensburg also threw a lifetime best of 20.74m, falling just two centimetres shy of Van Daalen’s enduring lead.
Germany’s Georg Harpf won bronze with 20.28m by five centimetres ahead of Alexander Mazur who just missed out on a medal but did come away with a Moldovan U20 record of 20.23m.
By contrast, Van Daalen’s teammate Yannick Rolvink was almost two metres down on his very best form. The world U20 leader with 21.81m with the 6kg implement was restricted to a fifth-place finish with a mark 19.88m.
If the surname sounds familiar, Jarno Van Daalen is the younger brother of reigning European U23 shot put and discus champion Alida who also won discus gold at the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships.
And by virtue of a 2006 birthdate, Jarno is eligible to compete at next year’s European Athletics U20 Championships which take place in Tampere, Finland.
Mixed 4x400m silver for Poland in Lima
On the track, a Polish team which included the recently crowned European U18 400m champion Stanislaw Strezelecki won silver in the mixed 4x400m relay in 3:20.44 behind Australia who won gold in an Oceanian record of 3:19.27.
@: Sergio Mateo
Rising Croatian star Jana Koscak leads the heptathlon standings after day one with a score of 3536 points thanks in no small part to her exploits in the high jump, clearing 1.81m for 991 points. Koscak leads the standings by 64 points from Switzerland’s Lucia Acklin (3472 points) and Australia’s Mia Scerri (3385 points).
Double European U18 champion Nia Wedderburn-Goodison qualified second fastest for the women’s 100m final with 11.39 while her British teammate Teddy Wilson finished second in his 100m semifinal in 10.35, just 0.02 behind South Africa’s Olympic 4x100m silver medallist Bayanda Walaza.
Steven Mills for European Athletics