Oregon reflections

The World Athletics U20 Championships is a major milestone in the careers of many rising athletes. With one month to go until Oregon hosts the global age-group event for the second time, we highlight some of the stars who competed at the 2014 edition and have gone on to secure success on the senior stage.

The World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon 26, taking place at Eugene’s Hayward Field from 5-9 August, is where the next generation could start to follow in their footsteps.

Oregon is where Dina Asher-Smith won her first global title, the British sprinter clinching the 100m crown in 11.23.

Prior to that, she claimed 4x100m bronze as a 17-year-old at the senior World Championships in Moscow in 2013 and she went on to become an individual world champion, getting the 200m title in Doha in 2019.

The 2014 World U20 Championships was the first outdoor global track and field World Athletics Series event to be held in the USA and when global athletics returned to Oregon for the senior World Championships in 2022, Asher-Smith claimed another medal – 200m bronze.

Dina Asher-Smith at the 2014 World U20 Championships (© Getty Images)

Joshua Cheptegei became the first global champion to be crowned at Hayward Field as the men’s 10,000m was the first final held during the 2014 World U20 Championships and the Ugandan athlete claimed a convincing win in 28:32.86.

Like Asher-Smith, Cheptegei also returned to Oregon for the 2022 World Championships and he won another 10,000m title – the second of his three senior world crowns. He has also become a two-time Olympic champion, winning the 5000m in 2021 and the 10,000m in 2024, and is the world record-holder over both distances.

Australia’s Matthew Denny lined up in Oregon as a two-time global medallist, one year on from his discus gold and hammer bronze at the World U18 Championships in Donetsk. The then 18-year-old also contested both events at the World U20 Championships, his performances highlighted by a fourth-place finish in the discus.

He made his senior World Championships debut in 2019 and has finished in the top six in the discus at the past four editions – placing sixth in Oregon in 2022. Since then he has become an Olympic bronze medallist and sits second on the world all-time list with the Oceanian record of 74.78m he threw in Ramona last year.

Matthew Denny in discus action in Eugene (© Getty Images)

The US team topped the medal table at the 2014 World U20 Championships on home soil, claiming 11 titles. Shamier Little was among the winners as she completed a 400m hurdles title treble at Hayward Field that summer – her world U20 gold following the NCAA title and US U20 title she claimed on the same track.

She also formed part of USA’s gold medal-winning 4x400m team at the World U20 Championships and went on to win the next two NCAA titles and two of her three senior US titles in Oregon. She finished fourth at the World Championships there in 2022 and claimed silver medals either side of that – in Beijing as a 20-year-old in 2015 and in Budapest in 2023.

Venezuelan triple jump star Yulimar Rojas might not have made it on to the podium in Oregon 12 years ago, but she has secured significant success since.

The then 18-year-old finished 11th in the long jump and also contested the triple jump at the World U20 Championships but has gone on to become a four-time world triple jump champion, an Olympic gold medallist and the world record-holder, soaring 15.74m to win the third of her world indoor titles in Belgrade in 2022.

Yulimar Rojas at the World U20 Championships in Eugene (© Getty Images)

Korea’s Woo Sanghyeok was already a global champion by the time he got to Oregon – as a 17-year-old he won the world U18 high jump title with a PB clearance of 2.20m in Donetsk. He achieved another PB on the global stage at the World U20 Championships, clearing 2.24m to clinch bronze.

After clearing a national record of 2.36m in the February of 2022 and winning the first of his two world indoor titles in the March, Woo made the podium again in Oregon later that year, claiming World Championships silver. He repeated that feat at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo.

Other senior global medallists who started out by making the world U20 podium in Eugene in 2014 include Sweden’s Andreas Almgren (800m bronze), USA’s Trayvon Bromell (100m silver), Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha (5000m gold), Japan’s Yoshihide Kiryu (100m bronze), Croatia’s Sara Kolak (javelin bronze), Cuba’s Lázaro Martínez (triple jump gold), New Zealand’s Eliza McCartney (pole vault bronze), Cuba’s Liadagmis Povea (triple jump silver), USA’s Valarie Sion (discus silver) and the Netherlands’ Nadine Visser (100m hurdles and heptathlon bronze).