Folashade Abugan of Nigeria on her way to gold in the Women's 400m Final (© Getty Images)
17yearold Folashade Abugan of Nigeria who came into these IAAF World Junior Championships as the fastest teen-ager of the year made sure the gold medal would not elude her as she executed a very aggressive race in tonight’s 400m final.
Her 51.84 winning performance here in Bydgoszcz may be one second slower than her World junior leading time and personal best 50.89, Abugan finished with a very comfortable 25 hundredths of a second margin over American champion Jessica Beard.
There was a closely fought battle for bronze, Cuba’s Susana Clement prevailing over Zambian Racheal Nachula 52.36 to 52.44.
Yuliya Baraley, the Ukrainian World Youth champion from Ostrava last year who was running on the outside was never in contention and finished fifth in a disappointing 53.18.
Right from the gun, Abugan who was running in lane three and had both Beard and Nachula on her outside, stormed to the front and by 150m was well clear ahead of the field.
Beard tried to make a move half way through the second bend and although she did make some ground over Abugan, the Nigerian had some gas left in the tank and kicked again as they entered the final stretch.
In the end Abugan had a couple of metres to spare over her closest rival and could finally savour becoming the third Nigerian ever to women’s 400m World Junior title after Fatima Yusuf and Olabisi Afolabi in 1990 and 1992 respectively.
Nachula paid the hard price for attempting to keep up with Abugan as she was left medalless, as Clement finished faster in lane 4 and out-dipped the fading Zambian.
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Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
