Jay456watt
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 23, 2016
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In 100 days’ time, the Kenyan capital Nairobi will host the biennial championships for athletes aged 17 and younger and the host nation can be expected to add to their tally of 43 gold medals.
This year’s staging will be the final edition of the World U18 Championships as the IAAF will instead devote more resources to area championships at the U18 level. But it is fitting that the last staging will be in a country that has provided so many memorable performances at the championships over the past 18 years.
1999, Bydgoszcz
At the first ever World Youth Championships, as it was then known, several young Kenyan athletes made their international breakthrough. Stephen Cherono – who later changed his name to Saif Saaeed Shaheen when he represented Qatar – won gold in the 2000m steeplechase. Just four years later, he won the first of his two world titles and went on to break the world record in 2004.
Other Kenyan highlights in Bydgoszcz came in the girls’ 3000m where Alice Timbilili took gold with compatriot Vivian Cheruiyot taking bronze.
Pius Muli may not have gone on to enjoy the same kind of senior success as Shaheen or Cheruiyot, but he can lay claim to being one of the few runners to have beaten Kenenisa Bekele as he finished ahead of the Ethiopian star to win the boys’ 3000m.
This year’s staging will be the final edition of the World U18 Championships as the IAAF will instead devote more resources to area championships at the U18 level. But it is fitting that the last staging will be in a country that has provided so many memorable performances at the championships over the past 18 years.
1999, Bydgoszcz
At the first ever World Youth Championships, as it was then known, several young Kenyan athletes made their international breakthrough. Stephen Cherono – who later changed his name to Saif Saaeed Shaheen when he represented Qatar – won gold in the 2000m steeplechase. Just four years later, he won the first of his two world titles and went on to break the world record in 2004.
Other Kenyan highlights in Bydgoszcz came in the girls’ 3000m where Alice Timbilili took gold with compatriot Vivian Cheruiyot taking bronze.
Pius Muli may not have gone on to enjoy the same kind of senior success as Shaheen or Cheruiyot, but he can lay claim to being one of the few runners to have beaten Kenenisa Bekele as he finished ahead of the Ethiopian star to win the boys’ 3000m.
