South Africa’s rising track stars claimed an impressive eight-medal haul at the biennial World Athletics U20 Championships in Oregon, US, which ran from 5 to 9 August.
South Africa’s future in athletics looks bright following a stellar performance at the 2026 U20 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Team SA brought home eight medals — their second-largest haul ever, just behind their nine-medal record at the 2021 edition.
South Africa’s standout performer was 19-year-old javelin favourite Jan-Hendrik Heymans, who delivered gold with a sensational 80.50m throw, shattering his previous personal best by more than 3m.
An opening 76.92m effort immediately put Heymans in gold-medal territory, but he dominated by clearing 76m on every single attempt, topping out at 80.50m. Ashish Yadav of India took silver (74.09m), while Addison James made history for Dominica, taking bronze with a national record of 73.89m to secure his country’s first world U20 medal.
“The people, the vibe, the atmosphere [spurred me on],” Heymans told Runner Space. “In my country, if you want to encourage the crowd to clap with you, it is seen as you not being humble. The people who want to clap will clap. But here I saw that you have to clap first if you want the people to [back you]. I tried that, and it worked.
“This medal means a lot. Hopefully, it opens a lot of doors…