17-year-old Kazakh discus thrower Maksim Sazhnev qualified for the final of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon, with a personal best of 61.37 meters, reports infohub.kz.
This result is a personal record for the athlete: his previous best was 60.45 meters. The qualifying mark is also a Kazakh U20 national record.
In qualifying, Sazhnev was outdone by five competitors. The best result was posted by Austria's Stefan Geisbauer (63.11m), followed by Italy's Francesco D'Angelo (62.63m) and Jamaica's Joseph Richard Salmon (62.10m). Also ahead of the Kazakh were Poland's Jakub Rodziak (61.58m) and Ukraine's Yaroslav Lystopad (61.50m).
The final is scheduled for the night of August 8-9.
Sazhnev is the second Kazakh athlete to reach a final at these championships. Earlier, pole vaulter Anna Cherkashina finished 11th in the final with a clearance of 4.10 meters. The gold in that event went to Czech Nikola Krutilova (4.45), silver to Ukraine's Olga Belchenko (4.40), and bronze to American Kylie Neyra (4.35).
Last night, three more Kazakhs competed. Margarita Storozhenko finished 25th in the 5km race walk with a time of 23:40.75, nearly three minutes behind champion Serena Di Fabio of Italy, who set a championship record of 20:57.57. In the men's 5km race walk, 18-year-old Yegor Strukov placed 36th (21:39.40), and 17-year-old Sherkhan Yegizbay 38th (27:31.77). The winner was Australia's Isaac Beacroft with a world U20 record of 18:40.37.
The World Athletics U20 Championships in the USA conclude tonight. Kazakhstan's team consists of six male and five female athletes who have met the qualifying standards. This is the largest contingent since the 2008 World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland (12 athletes). Two years ago in Lima, Peru, there were five Kazakhs, and at the 2022 World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, four. Kazakhstan has competed as a separate team at the World U20 Championships since 1994, participating in 16 consecutive tournaments, but has yet to reach the podium.