World U20s – Day 4: NSW athletes deliver three medals

9 August 2026

World U20s – Day 4: NSW athletes deliver three medals

Three returning NSW athletes from the 2024 World U20 team, Isaac Beacroft, Mason McGroder and Daniel Williams, have delivered Australia three medals on day four of the World Athletics U20 Championships being held at the famous Hayward Field in Eugene.

5000m WALK
Seeded fifth coming into the race, and despite his recent Commonwealth Games win, Isaac Beacroft was not the favourite. If you scanned to the bottom of the seed list, you found two Chinese with no PBs or season bests and one of them, Huajia Pu, had already raced Isaac, and won, at the April World Race Walking Championships in Mexico. There was also the threat of number one seed Indian Nitin Gupta.

The race took a while to unfold and at the halfway point there were still a pack of six comprising Beacroft, Naoto Roppongi (JPN), Nitin Gupta (IND), Toshiya Inoue (JPN), Emiliano Barba (MEX), Huajia Pu (CHN) and Chengxi Shi (CHN).
Over the next two kilometres most of this group would drop back into the field, not finish, or suffer a disqualification, the only athlete to remain with Isaac was his main danger China’s Huajia Pu. As the race continued the two would share the lead and at the bell Huajia led Isaac. But with less than 400m to go, Isaac surged to the front going on to put a three second gap on Huajia by the finish line. Isaac finished in a time of 18:40.37, with Huajia Pu clocking 18:43.70. Isaac’s time was an inaugural World U20 record (under the standard of 18:50 set by World Athletics) and superior to the best on record time of 18:47.2 set by Russian Sergey Kozhevnikov in 2019. Isaac also smashed his PB of 19:23.96. He now holds the U20 5000m and 10,000m walk records.

A student of the sport, Isaac had the record on his mind.
"Coming into the race, I thought that it was going to take a world record performance to win and it did," said Beacroft.
"So, I was prepared for that in my head and I knew that I was capable, I have seen it in my training.
"Pu Huajia is a lovely man, he is very good to compete against. He is very gracious in winning and very gracious in losing as well. So, I think that is going to be a very long rivalry. I am super excited to continue to do it."

Isaac become Australia’s sixteenth gold medallist at the World U20 Championships, the first in race walking and just the second NSW male to win a title, behind Miles Murphy at the first championships 40-years-ago in 1986.

In the women’s 5000m walk Zoe Woods placed 15th in 22:54.80, while Sophie Polkinghore was 34th in 24:26.15.

800M men
Daniel Williams ran the perfect race to win silver in the men’s 800m. In what was a difficult race to negotiate, due to the front running antics by Ugandan Shafeck Murungi, who toed the field through the bell in a ridiculous sub-50 split, Daniel remained well positioned near the front of chasing pack. They eventually caught Shafeck at the 600m mark, but the danger would now be Moroccan Imad Bouchajda, a 1:44.38 athlete. Daniel was on his tail as the two sprinted to the finish line, with Bouchajda holding off Daniel. They finished-up clocking 1:44.64 and 1:45.36 respectively. Harry Halleen finished in 9th place in 1:51.78.

Daniel didn’t underestimate the competition.
"I knew it would be a very strong competition, a lot of international talent. I did come in as favourite, but that margin was the smallest. I think we have seen between 1 and 2 in this championship,” said Daniel.

He drew positives from the event.
“Going through these arounds have been such a learning experience. It is my first international successful competition, so it is just amazing to come away with a silver. Such a great experience running against these boys from different countries.”

LONG JUMP men
As a 15-year-old, two years ago at these championships, Mason McGroder was a surprise bronze medallist with a then PB of 7.80m. In the ensuring years, he may not have broked that PB, but he certainly has progressed with consistent performances just below his PB. All that augured well for him to go to a new level, and he certainly did in Eugene today. In the qualifying rounds he leapt a PB 7.83m. Then tonight he equalled or raised his PB on four occasions, winning silver with a leap of 7.96m – just 1cm short of the winning jump by Italian Daniele Inzoli. His series was terrific: 7.69m, 7.69m, 7.87m, 7.94m, 7.94m, 7.80m, 7.96m.

Mason wins Australia’s sixth medal in this this event and leaps the second longest jump by an Australian.

3000M women
The youngest member of the Australian team, Eliza Lawton ran a very competitive race to place 9th in the 3000m. The youngest in the field by three months, she clocked 9:13.62 – the fifth highest ever place in the event by an Aussie, and just two places behind Jessica Hull who was 7th at this same venue in 2014.

RELAYS
NSW athletes were represented on three of the relays in action on day four.
Shari Hurdman and Alice Hill ran legs on the women’s 4x400m relay that were second in their heat and are a medal chance in the final.
Three NSW athletes, Fred Hamblin, Dylan Ruming and Chase Grant ran on the men’s 4x400m relay which won their heat. They are a chances for a medal in the final tomorrow.
In the evening session Maya Taber ran second leg in the final of the mixed 4x100m relay. Australia were flying, and leading into the final change, but would drop the baton and not finish the race.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image:  Isaac Beacroft (World Athletics)