The World Athletics U20 Championships is a biennial world championships for the sport of athletics organised by the World Athletics, contested by athletes in the under-20 athletics age category (19 years old or younger on 31 December in the year of the competition.
The 2009 South American Championships in Athletics was the forty sixth edition of the tournament and was held between 19 and 21 June in Lima, Peru.
The 2010 Asian Junior Athletics Championships was the 14th edition of the international athletics competition for Asian under-20 athletes, organised by the Asian Athletics Association. It took place from 1 to 4 July 2010 at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi – the first time the competition was held in Vietnam. A total of 44 events were contested, which were divided equally between male and female athletes. Three championship records were improved over the course of the four-day competition and numerous national junior records were also bettered. The competition, including its opening and closing ceremonies, was broadcast live on Vietnamese carrier VTV3.
In 2011, the foremost athletics event was the 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu. The other major global level competition held in 2011 was the World Cross Country Championships.
Trương Thanh Hằng is a Vietnamese track and field athlete who specialises in middle-distance running events. She is the Vietnamese record holder over both 800 metres and 1500 metres.
The 2011 African Junior Athletics Championships were held at the University of Botswana Stadium in Gaborone, Botswana from 12 to 15 May. It was the tenth edition of the continental athletics tournament for African athletes aged 19 years or younger. Over 700 athletes from 28 countries announced their desire to participate in the event over four days of track and field competitions, which featured 22 events from men and 22 events for women.
Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari is a Qatari track and field athlete who competed in the discus throw. He has represented Qatar at the Summer Olympics on two occasions, making his debut in 2000 and reaching the final at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He was also a finalist at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. In 2003 he was banned from competing for two years due to his refusal to be tested for doping.
The South American U18 Championships in Athletics is a biennial athletics event organized by "Confederación Sudamericana de Atletismo" (CONSUDATLE), the South American area association of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF). Starting in 1973, the competition was open for athletes under-17 in the early years. Since 2000 the international age group definition has applied. Up until the 2016 edition the competition was known as the South American Youth Championships in Athletics. The tournament is open for athletes from CONSUDATLE member federations. Athletes from IAAF members of other geographical areas may be invited. However, they are not considered in the classification.
In India, the sport of athletics was introduced during the period of the British Raj. The sport is governed at national level by the Athletics Federation of India, which was formed in 1946. Despite its large population, few Indian athletes have won a medal in a global or major championship. This began to change in the 21st century, when Indians started taking greater interest in athletics more generally and improved facilities for the sport began to be built at a local level. At a continental level, it has been among the more successful Asian nations, though some distance behind China and Japan.
At the 2001 Southeast Asian Games, the athletics events were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A total of 46 events were contested, of which 24 by male and 22 by female athletes. The track and field events were hosted at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil, the marathons were held around Merdeka Square, and the racewalking events took place at Titiwangsa Lake Gardens.
The 2013 African Junior Athletics Championships was the eleventh edition of the biennial, continental athletics tournament for African athletes aged 19 years or younger. It was held at the Germain Comarmond Stadium in Bambous, Mauritius from 29 August – 1 September. A total of 223 athletes from 29 nations competed. Neither pole vault event was held, due to a lack of entries, and the decathlon and heptathlon competitions were also not contested.
Janieve Russell is a Jamaican track and field athlete who competes mainly in the 400 metres hurdles and the 400 metres sprint. She won an Olympic bronze medal in the 4 × 400 m relay in Tokyo 2021, where she also finished fourth in the 400m hurdles final in a personal best of 53.08 secs. She is a four-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, winning the 400m hurdles title in 2018 and 2022, and the 4 × 400 m relay in 2014 and 2018. She has also won two relay silvers at the World Championships and a relay gold at the World Indoor Championships.
Lauryn Therin is a British track cyclist and a former bobsledder and track and field athlete.
Gu Siyu is a Chinese track and field athlete who competes in the discus throw and formerly the shot put. She holds a discus personal best of 67.86 m and a shot put best of 16.59 m. She was a double Asian junior champion in 2010 and represented her country at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics.
The 2000 Arab Junior Athletics Championships was the ninth edition of the international athletics competition for under-20 athletes from Arab countries. It took place in Damascus, Syria – the second consecutive time the city hosted the tournament, and a sixth hosting for Syria. A total of 42 athletics events were contested, 22 for men and 20 for women. Neither Morocco, Algeria nor Qatar—all regional powers in the sport—sent a team to the meeting, which impacted the overall quality of performances.
The 2004 Arab Youth Athletics Championships was the inaugural edition of the international athletics competition for under-18 athletes from Arab countries. Organised by the Arab Athletic Federation, it took place in Rabat, Morocco from 31 July to 2 August. A total of thirty-nine events were contested, of which 20 by male and 19 by female athletes, identically matching the programme of the 2003 World Youth Championships in Athletics. The girls' programme did not have a steeplechase event.
The 2009 Arab Youth Athletics Championships was the third edition of the international athletics competition for under-18 athletes from Arab countries. Organised by the Arab Athletic Federation, it took place in the Syrian city of Aleppo from 22 to 24 July. A total of thirty-eight events were contested, of which 20 by male and 18 by female athletes. The difference was accounted for by the lack of steeplechase and pole vault events for girls.
The 2008 Arab Junior Athletics Championships was the thirteenth edition of the international athletics competition for under-20 athletes from Arab countries. It took place between 20–23 June in Radès, Tunisia – the second time that the country hosted the tournament. A total of 44 athletics events were contested, 22 for men and 22 for women.
The track and field competition at the 2015 Military World Games was held from 4–11 October 2015 at the KAFAC Sports Complex in Mungyeong. The stadium is named after the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps. The marathon races took place on 11 October and followed a route around the city with a finish point at the track and field main stadium. A number of para-athletics exhibition events were added to the programme for the first time, covering men's and women's shot put, and track races over 100 m, 200 m, and 1500 m for men.
The 2017 Asian Youth Athletics Championships was the second edition of the biennial, continental athletics competition for Asian athletes aged fifteen to seventeen. It was held at the National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand from 20–23 May. Organised by the Athletics Association of Thailand, a total of forty events were contested with the events divided evenly between the sexes. The event programme mirrored that of the previous IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics, with the exception of a boy's decathlon, rather than the octathlon.
