NAIROBI, July 13 (Xinhua) -- China won their first gold medal on the second day of the World U18 Championship in Nairobi through Liu Zhekai, who set a personal best throw of 77.54 meters.
It was the third medal for China after having won two medals, a silver and a bronze on the first day on Monday.
Another Chinese athlete Song Qingshu also won bronze in the boys' javelin to take the Asian giants medal tally to four. South Africa's Johannes Schlebusch won silver in a personal best throw of 75.68 meters.
Germany leads the medal table with two gold and one bronze medals with South Africa second with four medals - One gold, two silver and one bronze.
However, the day's highlight came in the final track event of the day, the boys' 110m hurdles heats.
Running in the first heat, De'Jour Russell of Jamaica took his personal best from 13.31 (already a world-U18-leading time this year) all the way to 13.08.
The time made him the second fastest U18 athlete of all time, behind his compatriot Jaheel Hyde's world U18 best of 12.96.
None of the other hurdlers came close to Russell's performance, but there were other notable runs, including the remaining heat winners: Enrique Llopis of Spain with 13.47 (a personal best by 0.25), Lu Hao-hua of Chinese Taipei with 13.57 and Saoud Al-Humaidi of Qatar with 13.72.
The early exit of Zayed Al Shamsi of the United Arab Emirates was also notable. The third fastest U18 athlete this year with 13.43 finished only sixth in his heat in 14.70 and was eliminated.
There was also some extravagant running in the heats of the boys' 3000m. Not content with merely qualifying for the final, the African favourites achieved some extraordinary times, especially considering Nairobi's high altitude.
Selemon Barega of Ethiopia took the first heat in 7:55.73 after running the final kilometer in just outside 2:34.
The performance took him to third on this year's U18 world list. Stanley Mburu Waithaka of Kenya was the runner-up in 7:59.54, with Oscar Chelimo of Uganda and Merom Goitom of Eritrea both in the 8:08 range.
The pace of the second heat was only slightly more sensible. Edward Zakayo of Kenya took it in 8:04.85, evidently intent on proving a point to his Ethiopian rival Milkesa Mengesha, who finished second in 8:05.87.
The final kilometer took just 2:31 for the winner, much faster than was necessary, considering the first non-automatic qualifier in that race finished some 45 seconds behind.
There were no such displays in round one of the girls' 800m, although the races featured some impressive running. The fastest of the qualifiers for the semifinals was the Kenyan Jackline Wambui, winner of heat three in 2:08.24, 1.5 seconds ahead of Hirut Meshesha of Ethiopia.
The event favourite, Kenya's Lydia Jeruto, took heat one in a relatively pedestrian 2:10.37, but looked strong, running the final 200 meters in about 31 seconds.
The second fastest among the entrants, Ethiopian Netsanet Desta strolled to what looked like an easy victory in heat two, but was subsequently disqualified for a lane violation, leaving Vimbayi Maisvoreva of Zimbabwe the winner in 2:11.09.
The final heat winner, in what was the closest of the four races, was Pole Milena Korbut with 2:11.67.
