Daisy Jepkemei maintained Kenya's fantastic Steeplechase record and the gold medal sweep stretching eight years ago, in her world leading win of 9:47.22 on Thursday.
Jepkemei after a very slow opening start to the race in Barcelona, took it by the scruff of the neck and after moving through the first kilometre in 3:17.11, only Ethiopian Tejinesh Gebisa ranked second in the World standings behind her, stayed the pace.
The order remained that way through 2km passed in 6:32.81 until Jepkemei well on course to improve her global leader, piled on the pressure and opened a 10m gap at the bell ahead of her Ethiopian rival and then began running even quicker.
That saw the 16-year-old dash around the final circuit to win in a new World leading and personal best time, while Gebisa who fell away badly, just managed to scramble second position from the winner's fast finishing team-mate Stella Rutto.
Qatar wins 1500m gold, kenya’s Ngetich grab silver
In contrast the eagerly awaited men's 1500m clash between Hamsa Driouch and Teshome Dirirsa never took off when the latter could manage only a disappointing ninth place in a race expected to be one of the highlights of the Championships.
Driouch in what was initially a tactical contest, won in a very slow time of 3:39.04 from Kenya's Hillary Ngetich who clocked a PB 3:40.39 and Abdelhadi Labali from Morocco who recorded 3:40.60.
Kenyans struggle in 400m final
The men’s 400m event in Barcelona will go down in history as an event in which the most unexpected did indeed happen.
Firstly, nine men lined up in tonight’s final after Alphas Leken Kishoyian of Kenya was given the opportunity of a "solo" re-run of Wedneday’s semi-final following the starter’s own admission that he had fired the gun when the Kenyan was not steady in the set position.
Kishoyian a second chance and the World Number 7 this didn't disappoint himself or his supporters when beating the time of 46.49 by 0.03 which Russia's Nikita Uglov achieved as the eighth fastest qualifier for the final.
Running in lane 1 in the final, Kishoyian would eventually finish sixth at 46.19, the Kenyan having one extra race in his legs but still featuring well.
His compatriot Boniface Mweresa ranked seventh in 46.50.
London-bound Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic won the race in 44.85 to win his country’s first ever medal of any kind at the IAAF World Junior Championships.
Compiled from Iaaf
