Emmanuel Kiprono, 17, solos 7:28.28 at the World U20 Championships in Eugene
The Kenyan went through 400 m in 1:01.96, led by nine seconds at 1600 m and won by 19.51 seconds, 0.09 off the world U20 record.
Photograph: Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, during the 2021 US Olympic Trials, by Chris Schiemann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsEmmanuel Kiprono of Kenya won the 3000 m at the World Athletics U20 Championships at Hayward Field on Friday in 7:28.28, a championship record. He is 17. The world U20 record was about 0.09 seconds away.
He did it alone. Kiprono went through the first 400 m in 1:01.96, had nine seconds on the field by 1600 m and 13 seconds by 2000 m, and won by 19.51 seconds. Alois Abraham of France took silver in 7:47.79 and Ojiro Honda of Japan bronze in 7:48.49, a Japanese U20 record. In January Kiprono had lost the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championships by two seconds; in May he ran 7:35.4 at the Kenyan U20 trials in Nairobi.
The championships ran from 5 to 9 August and World Athletics counted seven world U20 records, seven championship records and 23 world-leading marks. Kenya's Frankline Kibet won the 5000 m in 13:28.27 on the opening day, Wilson Chepkwech the 1500 m in 3:37.46, and Spain's Bakr El Asri the steeplechase in 8:28.35. The United States won the mixed 4x400 m in a world U20 record of 3:15.31.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen's senior world record is 7:17.55, set at Chorzów in August 2024. A 17-year-old running within eleven seconds of it, on his own from the gun, is the number to keep.
Sources: World Athletics; Watch Athletics; Athletics Illustrated; Marathon Handbook.
