Reece Ademola (Leevale AC) finished fifth in the Men’s Long Jump final on Day Two of the World U20 Athletics Championships in Cali, Colombia.
Ademola jumped yet another new national U20 record of 7.83m in the opening round which also moves him to third on the Irish senior All-Time List ahead of Jonathan Kron who jumped 7.79m in 1994. Ademola’s mark improved on his previous lifetime best of 7.76m set in the qualification round on Monday.
The 19-year-old had been in the bronze medal position up until the final round when Brazilian athlete Gabriel Luiz Boza jumped 7.90m and American Curtis Williams jumped 7.86m to overtake him.
Reece Ademola has a bright future ahead
Nonetheless to finish fifth in a world final is a superb achievement for the Cork man who is coached by Liz Coomey. Ademola certainly has a bright future ahead.
It was a great day for Leevale AC, with another one of their talented prospects Lucy-May Sleeman qualifying for the semi-finals of the 100m.
Racing in heat two, Sleeman clocked a time of 11.71s to finish in fourth place, just outside her personal best of 11.63s which was set in Tullamore last month.
The 18-year-old advances to the next round as one of the three fastest non-automatic qualifiers across the seven heats. Sleeman will return to action tomorrow at 10.21pm in the last semi-final of the event. It will be a very tall order for her to progress to the final with only the top two automatically qualifying along with two fastest non-automatic qualifiers.
Lucy McGlynn (Tír Chonaill AC) was extremely unfortunate not to advance to the semi-finals of the Women’s 400m Hurdles missing out by 0.01s. McGlynn clocked a time of 60.30s to finish fifth in her heat, the third fastest time she has ever clocked in the event.
The Donegal athlete will be back in action later in the week in the 100m Hurdles.
Four Irish athletes are in action on Day Three of the championships. As mentioned previously Lucy-May Sleeman goes in the semi-final of the 100m.
Nicola Tuthill (Bandon AC) competes in Group B of the Hammer Throw qualification from 4:30pm. Tuthill has a personal best of 61.55m and will need a throw of 62m to automatically qualify for the final. The top twelve furthest throws will qualify.
Nick Griggs (Mid Ulster AC) and Callum Morgan (Candour Track Club) take to the track in the Men’s 3000m heats. Originally scheduled to be a straight final the organisers made a late decision to add heats for the athletes.
Griggs who is the Irish U20 record holder over the distance with a 7.53.40 PB from the Cork City Sports last month was also the European U20 champion in the event last year. He goes in heat one at 3pm.
Morgan who has a PB of 8.10.02 from this season goes in heat two at 3:15pm. The top six advance to the Saturday’s final automatically, along with the next three fastest times.
The World U20 Athletics Championships are live streamed on the World Athletics YouTube channel
