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.
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).
