The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the

sport of athletics Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing sports, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and racewalking ...

organised by the

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

, contested by athletes in the

under-20 athletics Junior is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 20 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Junior Athletics Competitions are held every two years which contain the best junior competitors in ...

age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the year of the competition. The competition was launched as the IAAF World Junior Championships in Athletics in 1986 and renamed to IAAF World U20 Championships in November 2015. The current name was adapted with the name change of the sports governing body in 2019. Anneisha McLaughlin-Whilby is the most successful athlete at the championships, having won one gold and four silver in individual and relay sprinting events between 2000 and 2004. Chris Nelloms,

Davidson Ezinwa Davidson Ezinwa (born 22 November 1971) is a former sprinter from Nigeria. He won a silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as a silver medal at the 1997 World Championships, both in 4 x 100 metres relay. He also won a 60 metres si ...

and

Dexter Lee Dexter Lee (born 18 January 1991) is a Jamaican sprinter who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres. He became the first athlete to win back-to-back titles at World Junior Championships in Athletics when he won the 100 metres in 2008 and 2010. ...

share the position of most successful male athlete, at four medals each.

Championships

The 2016 Championships were due to be held in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

until the IAAF's

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Suspension (topology), in mathematics * Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics * Suspension of a ring, in mathematics * Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspend ...

of the

All-Russia Athletic Federation The Russian Athletics Federation (RAF), previously named the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF; russian: Всероссийская федерация лёгкой атлетики, ВФЛА), is the governing body for the sport of athletics in ...

, which prohibits Russia from hosting international competitions. This event was relocated.

All-time medal table

As of 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships.

Championships records

Men

Decathlon disciplines

Defunct events

Women

Heptathlon disciplines

Defunct event

Mixed

Disqualifications

Doping

Several athletes have been stripped of medals due to doping.IAAF World Junior Championships Eugene 2014 Facts and Figures
. IAAF. Retrieved 2018-04-10.

Age falsification

Two athletes subsequently lost their medals as a result of fraudulently misstating their age on official documents: Bahrain's 2006 steeplechase silver medallist

Tareq Mubarak Taher Tareq Mubarak Taher, born as Dennis Kipkurui Sang ( ar, طارق مبارك طاهر, born 1 December 1986), is a middle-distance runner who represents Bahrain after changing nationality from Kenya. His speciality is the 3000 metres steeplechas ...

and Morocco's

Ahmed Baday Ahmed Ibrahim Baday (born 15 June 1974) is a Moroccan long-distance runner who specialized in the 5000 metres and cross-country running but now competes in road running competitions. He is currently banned for doping. A main stay of the Moroccan ...

(1998 5000 metres bronze). In addition to this, later analysis of

Moses Kiptanui Moses Kiptanui (born 1 October 1970) is a Kenyan middle and long distance athlete mostly famous for 3,000 m steeplechase in which he was the number one ranked athlete from 1991 to 1995 and three time IAAF World Champion. Kiptanui was al ...

's age when having won the 1990 1500m showed he was marginally over age (aged 19 years, 315 days) at the time of his victory, though this result has not been rescinded.

Title defenses

Given the age limitations on the competition it is rare that athletes get the opportunity to defend previous individual titles. A total of 22 athletes have managed this feat, eight of them men and fourteen women. In addition to this

Anita Weyermann Anita Weyermann (born 8 December 1977 in Wynigen) is a Swiss former middle- and long-distance runner. She won the 1998 Eurocross meeting.Civai, Franco & Gasparovic, Juraj (2009-02-28)Eurocross 10.2 km (men) + 5.3 km (women) Association of Road ...

won the 3000 m title after taking the 1500 m title two years earlier.

Doubles

A total of fifteen athletes have won two individual titles at the same championships (nine men, six women). The majority of these are sprint or long-distance combinations, although

Andrew Howe Andrew Howe (born 12 May 1985) is an American-born Italian athlete who specializes in the long jump and sprinting. He won this event as well as the 200 metres at the 2004 World Junior Championships. He was successful at senior level at a young ...

(200 m and long jump),

Margus Hunt Margus Hunt (born July 14, 1987) is an Estonian professional American football defensive end who is a free agent. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He played college football at SMU. He also ...

(discus throw and shot put) and

Morgan Lake Morgan Lake (born 12 May 1997) is a British track and field athlete, specialising in heptathlon and the high jump. She is the 2014 World Junior champion in heptathlon and high jump, and the 2015 European Junior champion in high jump. Lake broke ...

(high jump and heptathlon) managed to win novel doubles. Many others achieved a double between an individual victory and being a member of a winning relay team.

References

External links

Official World Athletics U20 Championships website

Results 1986 to 2021

a
gbrathletics.com
{{Junior athletics Recurring sporting events established in 1986

World Junior Championships in Athletics The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the ye ...

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA SN ...

Under-20 athletics competitions World youth sports competitions Biennial athletics competitions