Anna Cockrell was the woman to beat in the 400m Hurdles as she won GOLD for the USA in a Personal Best (PB) of 55.20s at the ongoing IAAF World U-20 Championships in Poland on Friday.

The 19-year old was unstoppable, attacking the hurdles one after the other to finish ahead of Jamaica’s Shannon Kalawan who posted 56.54s, while Xahria Santiago of Canada took Bronze in a Season’s Best (SB) of 56.90s.

Germany’s Eileen Demes was 4th in 57.83s, as Michaela Pešková (58.17s) and Nigerian-born Bahraini athlete Aminat Yusuf Jamal (58.23s) finished 5th and 6th respectively.

Photo Credit: Making of Champions / PaV Media Ltd
Photo Credit: Making of Champions / PaV Media Ltd

Meanwhile defending champion in the men’s event, Jaheel Hyde looked on course for a successful defence after finishing with the fastest time overall in the semis, returning a time of 49.77s to win Heat 3 ahead of USA’s Taylor McLaughlin who clocked 50.25s.

Other hurdlers competing in Saturday’s final are Kyron McMaster (50.49s), Tunisia’s Mohamed Fares Jlassi who set a National Record (NR) of 50.82s; Tatsuhiro Yamamoto (50.84s, PB), Mikael de Jesús (50.86s, PB),  Yoshiro Watanabe (50.95s) and Debin Gong (51.25s).

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Yemi Galadima is a Senior Sportswriter and Editor at Making of Champions. She has a bias for Athletics and was previously a Sports Reporter at the National Mirror, where she hosted a weekly column ‘On the Track with Yemi Olus’ for over two years. A self-acclaimed ‘athletics junkie’, she has covered national and international events live, such as the African Athletics Championships, African Games, Olympics and World Athletics Championships. She also freelances for World Athletics.

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