Athletics at the Youth Olympics sees gold medal diversity
The athletics programme of the World Youth Olympics ended in Singapore last weekend with a wide array of countries winning gold medals. Twenty-two different countries won gold medals in the 34 individual events, including France, Cuba, and Spain on the final day. Kenya and Russia each had three to top the list.
The Youth Olympics opened on 14 August and are scheduled to complete on 26 August. The first ever Youth Olympics was held in Singapore this year and will be held every two years, alternating between summer and winter in the same way the standard Olympics are held. 2012 will see the first winter games in Innsbruck. The second summer games will be held in Nanjing, China in 2014.
Participants range in age from 14 to 18. Among the gold medallists this year, 18 of them were 17 years old, and 14 were 16 years old. Two 15 year-old athletes won in their events; Odane Skeen of Jamaica won the boy’s 100 metres, and Gladys Chesire of Kenya won the girl’s 3000 meters.
Ukrainian hammer thrower Yuriy Sedykh, who competes for Russia, saw his daughter Alexia, who competes for France, win the gold medal in the hammer throw. Yuriy is the current world record holder in the hammer throw. Alexia’s mother, Natalya Lisovskaya, who also competes for Russia, is the world record holder in the women’s shot put. It comes as no surprise that their daughter was able to win gold in her father’s event.
“I started throwing the hammer when I was 10 years old,” said Alexia. “I tried the shot put too, but felt better at the hammer. My gold medal is for my parents, too.”
The wet conditions made the event a difficult one. On her first two throws Alexia was not able to produce a fair mark although she made up for it with a distance of 59.08m on her final throw. In the boy’s final favourite Sebastian Dobkowski wasn’t able to earn a medal. Liu Binbin of China won the boy’s gold with a distance of 73.99m.
The steeplechase was dominated by Kenyan athletes. Peter Matheka Mutuku won gold in the boy’s event while Virginia Nyambura won gold in the girl’s.
“This is our traditional event. Kenya has to win in every championship,” said Mutuku after the race.
Nyambura trailed Tsehynesh Tsenga of Ethiopia at the mid way mark of the steeplechase, but a second half surge saw the Kenyan athlete win with a personal best time of 6 minutes, 29.73 seconds, nearly eight seconds ahead of Tsenga.
Only two gold medallists from the World Junior Championships last month in Moncton, Canada were able to repeat as gold medallists at the Youth Olympics. Tizita Bogale Ashame of Ethiopia won gold in the 1000m, setting a personal best time of 2 minutes, 43.24 seconds. Angelica Bengtsson of Sweden won gold in the pole vault, hitting a mark of 4.30m. At the World Junior Championships she won gold with a height of 4.25m.
Cuban athlete, Norge Sotomayor, won gold at the 2009 World Youth Championships in the 400m hurdles, and won gold in Singapore with a time of 50.69 seconds. He finished just ahead of Kumar Durgesh of India who had a time of 50.81.
The final athletics competitions were medley relays. They included legs of 100m, 200m, 300m, and 400m. In keeping with the Olympic spirit of multinational unity, the five Olympic Continental Areas were represented in the relays: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
The Americas won gold for both the boys' and the girls' categories.
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