NAIROBI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Cuba has shown potential in the absence of the United States to claim the overall title as the World U18 Championships enters day three in Nairobi on Friday.
Cuba is making the rings in the jumps, and there was no denying teenager long jumpers Maikel Vidal and Lester Lescay whose performance was the highlight on the day on Thursday.
Event favourite Maikel Vidal claimed a narrow victory in the end with a best of 7.88m.
Beforehand he stood head and shoulders over his rivals, and after that third-round effort he appeared to have the event at his mercy.
Of the others, no one had surpassed 7.50m through the opening three rounds, his teammate Lester Lescay leading the chase with 7.49m.
But Vidal was given a late scare by Lescay, who launched himself to a personal best of 7.79m. That proved good enough for silver, but not enough to usurp Vidal. Romania's Andreas Samuel Busca took third with a final-round effort of 7.47m.
"I'm proud for representing my country well," said Vidal, "I intend to keep improving since I believe I have a long way to go."
Earlier, Germany's Timo Northoff claimed a convincing win in the boys' shot put, the 17-year-old seizing command in the second round with a throw of 20.50m.
Northoff then unleashed another lifetime best in the final round to win the gold with 20.72m.
"It's been a great experience," said Northoff. "I have learnt a lot and my work will be to improve again in the next competition. I'm excited to bring the gold home."
His closest threat - if we could call it that - came from Belarus's Mikhail Samuseu, who threw 19.99m in the fifth round which secured him silver.
Jonathan De Lacey of South Africa looked sure to challenge for the gold after his second-round effort of 19.93m, but that was a mark he couldn't improve on in his subsequent attempts and he had to settle for bronze.
If there was a hard-luck story, then perhaps it was Bosnia and Herzegovina's Nermin Stitkovac, who had thrown 19.60m in qualifying but could manage no better than 19.06m in the final, which placed him fifth.
Stitkovac appeared to unleash a 20-meter throw in the final round, which would have been good enough to move him into the medal positions, but it was ruled a foul.
In the boys' decathlon, Steven Fauvel Clinch ended the competition the same way he began: in the lead. The French athlete started day two with a victory in 13.94 in the 110m hurdles.
The discus proved disappointing, with his biggest throw of 34.14m well down on his best. However, he bounced back in the pole vault with a clearance of 4.50m, adding 20cm to his PB, which moved him back to the top of the standings.
In javelin, he threw a decent 48.08m to maintain his lead over Olegs Kozjakovs, who applied some pressure ahead of the 1500m with a best of 55.76m.
