NSWIS duo Beacroft and Williams strike gold and silver at Worlds

It was a day and night of medals, records and personal bests for Australia at the World U20 Athletics Championships Eugene, USA at the famous Hayward Field.

Isaac Beacroft (NSWIS, David Beacroft)  won the gold medal in the 5km race walk, just over a week after he won Commonwealth gold in Glasgow.

Beacroft also broke the world record in the World U20 5km race walk with a time of 18.40.37 in what was a huge day for the 19-year-old from Quakers Hill in Sydney.

In the night session Beacroft’s great friend Daniel Williams (NSWIS, Andrew Rowlings) ran perfectly to take out the silver medal in the 800m with a time of 1.45.36.

Long jumper Mason McGroder (NSW, Matthew Wade), jumped a PB of 7.96m to win the silver medal, just one centimetre short of the gold medal won by Italian jumper Daniele Leonardo.

The day belonged to Beacroft, who was the talk of the international press after his world record and gold medal win.

“It’s a massive relief,” Beacroft said after his win. “I felt a fair bit of pressure going into this one, you are a Commonwealth champion, surely it’s a walk in the park to do juniors.

“It’s definitely not.

“I have raced each race to its’ merits, I don’t know what is harder.

“I’m stoked to have one both, that’s all I can say on that.”

For an emotional Williams, he said he had been dreaming of a medal in the 800m at the World Championships for years.

He ran an attacking race and absolutely gave it his all.

“To have finally won the medal after I’ve been thinking about it for so long it feels so great, a surreal feeling,” he said. “With the race itself I’m so happy with that.

“The first lap was probably the quickest I’ve done, so to run a 1.45 I can’t be mad with that.

“The medal was always the goal, of course gold would have been nice but to come away with silver I couldn’t be happier as it was such a great race.” 

McCroder now adds a silver to his bronze he won as a 15-year-old at the World Championships two years ago. 

Even though the 17-year-old fell just short of the gold medal, he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face post the event.

“It’s a bit disappointing to miss by one centimetre, but I can’t be any happier with the result. 

“It was buzzing out there, so it couldn’t have gone any better. 

“I gave it my all.” 

While it was a huge day of medals for Australia, there were some great signs of the future with 16-year-old Victorian Jamison Harding  (VIC, Mark Steward) coming fourth in the pole vault with a PB jump of 4.35m.

“I’m thrilled to have jumped a PB,” she said.

“Fourth I’m very happy with it, but it would have been great to get a medal but I can’t not be happy with that.” 

The other standout performance was the youngest member of the team, 15-year-old  Eliza Lawton (NSW, Vaughan Lawton )  who came ninth with a time of 9:13.62 in the 3000m. 

In the Decalthon, Wyatt Hill ( WA, Grant Ward) came 9th with  7595 points which is a PB, and Xavier Davie  (TAS, Luke Sulzberger) 7338 points, also a PB.

Earlier in the day the Australian women’s 4x100m relay team of Thewbelle Philp, Zara Hagan, Grace Crowe, and  Emilia Reed had a huge run to qualify fastest for the final tomorrow with a time of 43.44, breaking the Australian U20 record by 0.9 seconds.

“We all worked together really well, each of the team focusing on their own role in the race, and we all can’t wait for the final,” Philip said. 

Elijah Wilson (ACT, Rowen Vergano) also had a great day in the discus throw, throwing a huge 60.67m on his last throw to automatically qualify for the tomorrow’ final.

In other results from Eugene: 

15th:  5000m Walk Zoe Woods (NSW, David Beacroft)  22:54.80.

34th:  5000m Walk Sophie Polkinghorne (NSW, David Beacroft)  24:26.15.

17th:  5000m Walk Owen Toyne (ACT, David Beacroft)  20:18.27. 

2nd: Heat, Women 4x400m Australia (Shari Hurdman, Xanthee Watts, Charlotte McAuliffe, Alice Hill) 3:33.68

1st:  Heat, Men 4x400m Australia (Seth Kennedy, Fred Hamblin, Dylan Ruming, Chase Grant) 3:07.04

4th: Heat, Men’s 4x100m Australia (Uwezo Lubenda, Dylan Hall, Kelechi Ekwomadu, Josah John) 39.73

Qualifying Discus Throw Elijah Wilson ( ACT,  Rowena Vergono) 60.67m, automatic qualifier for final. 

27th:  3000m final  Imogen Baker (VIC, Peter Schuwalow) 9:58.93.

9th:  800m final  Harry Halleen (NSW, Gary Howard) 1:51.78.

8th: 400m semi-final Hurdles Shakira Harding (VIC, Murray Harding) 60.56.

DNF mixed 4x100m relay Australia (Uwezo Lubenda, Maya Taber, Kelechi Ekwomadu, Thewbelle Philp) 

Luke Dennehy and David Tarbotton, Australian Athletics