Anna Cherkashina, an 18-year-old pole vaulter from Almaty, has qualified for the final of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, USA. In the qualifying round, she cleared 4.10 meters, setting a personal best and a new national record for Kazakhstan. This result placed her among the 13 finalists who will compete for medals on August 8. All finalists recorded the same height of 4.10 meters, promising a tightly contested final, reports infohub.kz.
Kazakhstan's team at this championship consists of six male and five female athletes who have met the required standards. This is the largest squad since 2008, when 12 athletes competed at the World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. For comparison, two years ago in Lima, Peru, there were only five representatives, and in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, four.
According to the press service of the Athletics Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, since 1994, when Kazakh athletes first competed at the World U20 Championships in Lisbon, they have not missed a single tournament. In the Portuguese capital, the country was represented by Andrei Taranenko, Andrei Sklyarenko, Viktoriya Tokonbayeva, Natalya Dorokhina, and Svetlana Badrankova. Throughout the history of participation in these competitions, Kazakh athletes have yet to reach the podium.