Sani Brown Breaks Bolt's World Youth Championships Record

by Brett Larner
video by Sport in HD

After winning the 100 m in World Youth Championships record time earlier in the week, Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Josai Prep H.S.) fully arrived on the international scene on the Championships' final day, breaking Usain Bolt's 200 m meet record to win gold in 20.34. Running into a moderate headwind, Sani Brown had pressure from South Africa's Kyle Appel on the curve, but hitting the straight he pulled away steadily to take the win by a margin of over 0.2 seconds. Sani Brown's time bettered his PB by 0.22 seconds, cleared Bolt's 20.40 record from the 2003 World Youth Championships and moved him up to all-time youth #2 behind only Bolt. It also cleared the Beijing World Championships qualifying standard of 20.50, and with a 2nd-place finish in the 200 m at last month's National Championships behind him it means Sani Brown is a lock for the Beijing team at age 16. Give him 5 more years and Tokyo 2020 should be interesting indeed.

Sani Brown's gold was the only Japanese medal of the day as boys' pole vault contender Masaki Ejima (Eda H.S.) came up short, clearing only 5.00 m for 6th as gold and silver medalists Armand Duplantis (Sweden) and Vladyslav Malykhin (Ukraine) both cleared 5.30 m to break the World Youth Championships record. Hyuga Endo (Gakuho Ishikawa H.S.) was the top Japanese finisher in the boys' 3000 m, 5th in 8:26.96 with teammate Yuta Kambayashi (Kyushu Gakuin H.S.) 7th in 8:29.75. Maya Takeuchi (Setsu H.S.) missed out on a top 10 placing in the girls' long jump, jumping 5.89 m for 11th. In the meet-closing mixed 4x400 m Japan took 6th, leaving its medal total at three golds, one silver and one bronze for 3rd overall behind the U.S.A. and Kenya.

9th World Youth Championships Day Five Japanese Results
Cali, Colombia, 7/19/15
click here for complete results

Boys' 3000 m Final
1. Richard Yator Kimunyan (Kenya) - 7:54.45
2. Davis Kiplangat (Kenya) - 7:54.52
3. Tefera Mosisa (Ethiopia) - 7:55.04 - PB
4. Abayneh Degu (Ethiopia) - 8:00.79 - PB
5. Hyuga Endo (Japan) - 8:26.96
-----
7. Yuta Kambayashi (Japan) - 8:29.75

Boys' 200 m Final -0.4 m/s
1. Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (Japan) - 20.34 - MR
2. Kyle Appel (South Africa) - 20.57 - PB
3. Josephus Lyles (U.S.A.) - 20.74 - PB

Mixed 4x400 m Relay Final
1. U.S.A. - 3:19.54
2. South Africa - 3:23.60
3. Canada - 3:23.60
-----
6. Japan - 3:25.01

Girls' Long Jump Final
1. Tara Davis (U.S.A.) - 6.41 m +0.3 m/s - PB
2. Kaiza Karlen (Sweden) - 6.24 m -0.2 m/s - PB
3. Maja Bedrac (Slovenia) - 6.22 m +0.3 m/s
-----
11. Maya Takeuchi (Japan) - 5.89 m -0.3 m/s

Boys' Pole Vault Final
1. Armand Duplantis (Sweden) - 5.30 m - MR
2. Vladyslav Malykhin (Ukraine) - 5.30 m (MR)
3. Emmanouil Karalis (Greece) - 5.20 m
-----
6. Masaki Ejima (Japan) - 5.00 m

(c) 2015 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

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