The world’s leading teenage distance runners will race for medals across eight disciplines at the World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon 26 at Hayward Field from 5-9 August.
Here we will get a glimpse of what to expect in the 800m, 1500m, 3000m and 5000m taking place over five days of competition.
Women’s 800m
Following the withdrawal of British Olympian Phoebe Gill due to an ongoing knee issue, Slovenia’s Živa Remic tops the entry list. The 16-year-old is one of the youngest in the event but she has already run 1:59.64 – a national U18 record. Remic has an impressive collection of medals already. She set a championship record to win the European U18 title in Rieti last month, adding that medal to her silver from last year’s European U20 Championships and two national titles.
Another athlete to watch is Ethiopia’s Habtam Gebeyehu, who ran 1:59.72 to finish third at the Kip Keino Classic in Kenya in April. Nancy Jepngetich ran 2:00.18 to win at the Kenyan trials and prepares to make her major championships debut in Oregon.
Morocco’s Saida El-Bouzy returns to the World U20 Championships stage after finishing eighth in the 1500m in Lima two years ago, while 16-year-old Paige Sheppard races for the host nation after winning the US U20 title at Hayward Field. Both El-Bouzy and Sheppard have run below 2:01 this season.
Men’s 800m
Only one hundredth of a second separates the season’s best times of the top two athletes entered for the men’s 800m. Australia’s Daniel Williams, who will celebrate his 19th birthday two days ahead of the competition on 3 August, is at the top with his 1:44.37 PB from the Adelaide Invitational in March. Williams is no stranger to Hayward Field, having competed in the promotional 800m at the Prefontaine Classic in early July.
That experience could give him the edge over African silver medallist Imad Bouchajda but the 19-year-old from Morocco will be looking to close the one-hundredth-of-a-second gap following his 1:44.38 PB at the Moroccan U20 Championships in early July. Bouchajda is also entered for the 1500m in Oregon.
Nashon Pkiach races for the first time outside of Kenya after winning his nation’s trial event in 1:46.17. That followed his 1:47.15 in the Kip Keino Classic U20 800m in April.
What makes this event even more competitive is the fact that three athletes start with identical PBs set this year as both Benjamin Lakošeljac of Slovenia and US U20 champion Stefon Dodoo have matched Pkiach’s time.
Women’s 1500m
The top of the field is dominated by four 17-year-old athletes: Haregeweyni Kalayu and Elsabet Amare from Ethiopia, Caren Chepchirchir of Kenya and Ellery Lincoln from the USA.
Kalayu has the best time of the four with the PB of 3:59.28 she set to finish second in Rabat in May during one of her five Wanda Diamond League appearances so far this season. Her compatriot Amare ran 4:01.32 in Montreuil, France, in June.
Kalayu will recognise her competition as she raced Chepchirchir in Rabat, the Kenyan athlete running a PB of 4:03.91 that day.
Lincoln returns to Hayward field, her future home track as a University of Oregon student, following her stellar Prefontaine Classic debut in early July. She ran a PB of 4:07.06 to place eighth in a race against the pros – a time that puts her a couple of seconds away from the 4:04.43 achieved by her mother Sarah Schwald, an NCAA indoor 3000m champion in 1995 who made her international debut at the World U20 Championships in Plovdiv in 1990.
Another talented athlete out of the USA who will be in medal contention is 19-year-old Claire Stegall who edged Lincoln to take the national U20 title at Hayward Field in a PB of 4:04.59.
Morocco’s Saida El-Bouzy, who is also entered for the 800m, will be looking to build on her eighth place in this event in Lima two years ago.
Men’s 1500m
Ethiopia’s Destaw Tade and Qatar’s Mohamed Wahid Torech meet again after racing in Liège, Belgium, in July. The 18-year-olds ran PBs of 3:36.41 and 3:36.96, respectively, in that race to place seventh and 10th, competing against a much older field.
Tade seeks another U20 medal following his win at the Ethiopian U20 Championships in April, while Torech will want to build on his series of sub-3:40 performances this season.
Ojiro Honda, the 19-year-old from Japan, looks to continue his progress in 2026 after recording a PB of 3:37.53 in the heats at the Japanese Championships before finishing second in the final. He returns to the United States after running in the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee in January.
David Kapaiko Sekento finished second at the Kenyan trials for this event and the 16-year-old went on to run a PB of 3:38.45.
Filip Toul of Czechia turns 19 just three days before the competition begins and will be looking to take home a medal as a belated birthday present to himself. He set a 1500m PB of 3:38.62 en route to a 3:55.68 mile at the Ostrava Golden Spike on home soil in June.
Women’s 3000m
Uganda’s Charity Cherop leads the field after running a PB of 8:39.22 during the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Oslo in June. She also has the benefit of global experience as she is appearing in her second World U20 Championships after claiming 5000m silver from Lima in 2024. She also earned bronze at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee in January. The 19-year-old is also entered for the 5000m in Oregon.
Shito Gumi, who is also 19 years old and hails from Ethiopia, ran 8:41.18 indoors in February. She will clash with Cherop for the second time in international competition after they were separated by two places at the 2024 World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade. Nigsti Molla, who has run 8:44.75, and Yordanos Tsigab, who has clocked 8:56.83, are also entered for Ethiopia, but one will be a reserve, with only two athletes per federation permitted to race.
Sweden’s Carmen Cernjul sits between Molla and Tsigab on the entry list with her PB of 8:54.26. A double European U20 silver medallist in the 1500m and 3000m, Cernjul is also entered for the 1500m and 5000m in Oregon.
Joining Cherop from Uganda is 18-year-old Bentalin Yeko, who ran 8:57.07 in April. Yeko competed in the 3000m at the 2024 World U20 Championships in Lima, where she placed seventh. Like Cherop and Cernjul, she is also entered in the 5000m in Oregon.
Men’s 3000m
Kenya’s 17-year-old Emmanuel Kiprono will want to continue an impressive run of form after claiming world U20 cross-country silver in Tallahassee before winning the U20 race at the Kip Keino Classic and the trial race for the World U20 Championships, the latter in a PB of 7:35.40.
Second in the field is 2024 European U18 1500m bronze medallist Alois Abraham, the 18-year-old from France who ran 7:46.78 on home soil in June.
Australia’s Charles Barrett, Aleksi Ahlfors of Finland and Magnus Øyen of Norway are all separated by less than a second on PBs set this season – Barrett with 7:51.95, Ahlfors with 7:52.18 and Øyen with an indoor performance of 7:52.67.
Japan’s Ojiro Honda and Czechia’s Filip Toul are also entered for the 3000m as well as the 1500m.
Women’s 5000m
Uganda’s Charity Cherop will be looking to improve her silver medal from this event at the 2024 World U20 Championships in Lima. She ran a national record of 14:39.38 during the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Shaoxing/Keqiao and started her year with bronze at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee.
As she does in the 3000m, Ethiopia’s Shito Gumi sits second to Cherop on the entry list thanks to the PB of 14:49.66 she set in Liège last month.
Carmen Cernjul of Sweden is another athlete named for multiple events – the 1500m, 3000m, and 5000m. The double European U20 medallist has run 15:06.71 for the 5000m this year.
Gumi’s compatriot Emebet Tilahun clocked 15:14.88 in Liège and was runner-up at the Ethiopian U20 Championships, while 17-year-old Cynthia Chepkirui will be looking to build on her fourth-place finish at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee to take home a medal for Kenya.
Men’s 5000m
Kenya’s Frankline Kibet returns to the USA on the hunt for another title to go with his world cross-country crown from Tallahassee in January. The 19-year-old ran 13:08.32 when making his Diamond League debut in Paris in June, a performance 12 seconds faster than any of his rivals have ever run.
Japan’s Yota Mashiko and Ryo Kurimura will also be strong contenders for a medal. Mashiko, who turns 19 two days before the start of the competition, and Kurimura, also 19 years old, have respectively run 13:20.35 and 13:21.99 this year. Kurimura went on to win the Asian U20 title in Hong Kong.
Kibet is joined on the Kenyan team by Nehemiah Kipngeno, who finished behind Mashiko and Kurimura in Nobeoka in May and who ran a PB of 13:22.90, also in Japan, in April before winning the Kenyan trial race for the championships.
We can expect fireworks from this race and Norway’s Magnus Øyen will want to challenge for his first global medal after getting European U20 bronze last year.
Nicole Montello for the World Athletics Media Academy
