Eisa and Alamisi triumph in Lima as all individual medals go to three Eastern African countries in Day 1

Justin Lagat is covering the World Athletics U 20 World Champs for RunBlogRun remotely, this week. This is his first column on the U20 world championships.

Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa, the defending champion, and Kenya’s Andrew Alamisi are the first gold medalists from the Lima 2024 World Under 20 Championships after winning the women’s and men’s 5000m titles, respectively. Australia won gold in the mixed 4x400m relay in 3:19.27, ahead of Poland in 3:20.44 and China in 3:21.27.

The World Athletics Under 20 Championships have always been the perfect platform for introducing future World and Olympic champions. This is one reason we should all remember the names of the emerging stars here. Some reigning Olympic champions, including Armand Mondo Duplantis and Letsile Tebogo, still hold the world U20 championship records.

It was not hard to guess the probable winners in the first track finals on the first day of the championships. While the women’s 5000m race had gone to the fastest on the start list (both in PB and SB times), it had gone to the one with the fastest seasonal best time in the men’s race.

Two Ethiopians in the women’s race immediately took to the front after the gun. 2:57.27 was the time at the first 1000m, as three formed a chasing pack comprising two Kenyans and one Ugandan, but the duo of Eisa Medina, the defending champion, and Mekedes Alemeshete, who had won the women’s 5000m race at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting with a then-world-leading time of 14:36.70 in April, were in a different class from the rest.

Eisa broke away from her teammate with about 1000m to go and won the race in a new championship record of 14:39.71, while Alemeshete followed in 14:57.44.

Behind the Ethiopian runners, there was a different race for the bronze medal between Kenya’s Mercy Chepkemoi and Uganda’s Charity Cherop. The medal eventually went to Cherop after she opened up a gap on her rival on the last lap, running 15:25.02.

Japan’s Natsui sprang to the front at the start of the men’s 5000m final, crossing the 1000m point in 2:45.92, but the gap would be closed before he…