NAIROBI — Olympic silver medalist Christine Mboma led a 1-2 finish for Namibia in the women’s 200 meters on Day 4 at the World U20 Championships in Nairobi on Saturday (21).
Mboma, who finished second to Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah in Tokyo earlier this month, flashed to her second-fastest time ever at 21.84 seconds to dominate the half-lap event in a new championship record.
The 18-year-old trailed as many as three runners coming off the curve, but used her trademark powerful finish to blow past her competitors and then opened up a gap on her way to securing the gold medal.
READ MORE: Thompson-Herah completes sprint double with second-fastest ever 200m
Mboma’s compatriot Beatrice Masilingi, the Olympic sixth-placer, who led the qualifiers for the final when she ran the previous championship record of 22.19 on Friday, returned on Saturday to lower her personal best with 22.18 seconds and picked up the silver medal.
Nigeria’s Favour Ofili, who represented LSU on the collegiate circuit, finished with the bronze medal, while setting a new personal best and national U20 record with 22.23s.
Jamaica’s Brianna Lyston initially finished fourth in the race with a personal best of 23.04s, but she was later disqualified for stepping on the line going around the bend.
Another standout performance came from France’s Sasha Zhoya, who broke the men’s under-20s 110m hurdles world record for a second time in 24 hours after clocking 12.72s to beat Jamaica’s Vashaun Vascianna (13.25 PB) and Poland’s Jakub Szymanski (13.43 PB).
The women’s 100m hurdles title went to Jamaica and Baylor University’s Ackera Nugent in 12.95s, while Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji hit the fourth flight of hurdles and crashed out.
