On the third day of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Kazakh athletes failed to advance to the semifinals of the hurdle sprints, reports infohub.kz.
19-year-old Bogdan Goncharov from Shymkent became the first Kazakh to run the 110m hurdles under 14 seconds at the World U20 Championships, clocking 13.99. However, that was not enough to progress: he finished sixth in his heat, missing the qualifying spot by 0.33 seconds.
The women's 100m hurdles also brought disappointment. 18-year-old Alina Golovina from Karaganda finished in 14.10 seconds, while her 19-year-old teammate Antonina Chernyshova from North Kazakhstan Region, after falling at a hurdle, crossed the line in 17.98. Even their personal bests of 13.93 and 13.78 respectively would not have been enough to advance, as the qualification standard for the second round was 13.68.
Earlier, Kirill Savchenko (400m hurdles), Sofiya Kidenko (400m), and Gleb Gladilov (triple jump) also failed to qualify from the preliminary rounds.
On the first day of the championships, pole vaulter Anna Cherkashina cleared a Kazakhstan-record height of 4.10 meters to reach the final.
Kazakhstan's team at the U20 Worlds consists of six male and five female athletes who have met the entry standards. This is the largest contingent since the 2008 World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, where 12 athletes competed. Two years ago in Lima, Peru, there were five Kazakh athletes, and at the 2022 World Championships in Cali, Colombia, there were four.
Kazakhstan has competed as a separate team at the World Athletics U20 Championships since 1994. Since then, Kazakh athletes have participated in 16 editions without missing a single one, but have yet to reach the podium.