Mondo athletics tracks again helps the world’s top teenage athletes to excel

The world’s top teenage athletics talent converged on the Peruvian capital Lima to celebrate the 20th edition of the World Athletics U20 Championships, which was held over five days from 27-31 August.

Once again, Mondo was the provider of the athletics track as it had been for the previous three of the biennial World Athletics U20 Championships held in Finland, Kenya and Colombia as well as many other editions since the championships were inaugurated in 1986.

The future stars of the sport in action in Lima’s Estadio Atlético de la Villa Deportiva Nacional were able to display their skills on a Mondo athletics track. Installed in 2019, the track in the Estadio Atlético de la Villa Deportiva Nacional is the same that graced the Rio 2016 Olympic Stadium and one of only three stadia in South America to have such a leading-edge product designed to enhance performance with every step an athlete takes.

List of records at the World Athletics U20 Championships

Not surprising, a stunning list of superlatives were achieved in Lima.

  • 4 Championship Records
  • 5 Area U20 Records
  • 65 National U20 Records
  • 1 World U18 Best (note: no official records for U18 athletes)
  • 2 Area U18 Records
  • 20 National U18 records
  • No less than 395 personal best performances!

Just like at the Olympic Games Paris 24, where the athletics competition was also held on a Mondo track, exceptional performances in the middle and long distances once again showed that the Mondo athletics track are much more than its well-deserved reputation as a ‘super-fast sprinters’ track’.

  • The men’s 3000m steeplechase final saw a world U18 best from Kenya’s prodigious Edmund Serem, who clocked 8:15.28 at the age of 16 and triumphing against world-class athletes up to two years older than him. However, behind Serem, the entire top eight and 12 of the 16 starters set personal bests.
  • The men’s 10,000m race walk was won by Tunisia’s Rayen Cherni in a championship record of 39:24.85 and saw the first 18 men home set personal bests with seven of them setting national U20 records.
  • A similar story was told in the women’s 5000m final which saw Ethiopia’s Media Eisa set a championship record of 14:39.71 and behind her seven women ran faster over seven-and-a-half laps of the track than they had ever done before.

The World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24 completes a quartet of major international championships this year which have been held on Mondo tracks. The Mondo tracks at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 in March, the Roma 24 European Athletics Championships in June and the Olympic Games Paris 24 earlier in August also made headlines around the world and grabbed global attention.