Kazakh discus thrower Maxim Sazhnev qualified for the final of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, with a result of 61.37 meters. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
The 17-year-old has never thrown the discus that far before. His previous personal best was 60.45 meters. The result he achieved in the qualification in Eugene is a Kazakh youth record.
Five other finalists threw farther than Sazhnev. The top three were Austrian Stefan Geisbauer (63.11), Italian Francesco d'Angelo (62.63), and Jamaica's Joseph Richard Salmon (62.10). Alongside the Kazakh, Pole Jakub Rodziak (61.58) and Ukrainian Yaroslav Lystopad (61.50) also advanced.
The final will take place on the night of August 8-9.
Sazhnev is the second representative of Kazakh athletics at the 2026 World U20 Championships to reach a final. The first was pole vaulter Anna Cherkashina. Her qualification result of 4.10 meters was only enough for 11th place out of 13 finalists. The gold was won by Czech Nicole Kutilova (4.45), silver went to Ukraine's Olga Belchenko (4.40), and bronze was claimed by American Kylie Neyra (4.35).
Last night, three more Kazakhstani athletes competed at the World Championships. Margarita Storozhenko finished 25th in the 5 km race walk with a time of 23:40.75. The 18-year-old finished almost three minutes behind champion Serena Di Fabio of Italy, who set a championship record of 20:57.57.
In the men's same distance, 18-year-old Yegor Strukov finished 36th (21:39.40), and 17-year-old Sherkhan Yegizbay was 38th and last (27:31.77). The winner was Australian Isaac Beacroft, who triumphed with a world U20 record of 18:40.37.
Kazakhstan's team at the 2026 World U20 Championships consists of six male and five female athletes who met the qualifying standards.
This is the largest squad since the 2008 World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland (12 athletes). Two years ago in Lima, Peru, there were five Kazakh athletes, and at the 2022 World Championships in Cali, Colombia, there were four.
Kazakhstan has competed as a separate team at the World U20 Championships since 1994. Since then, our athletes have participated in 16 such tournaments, not missing a single one, but have yet to reach the podium.