Kansas City's Zaya Akins and Mizzou's Sterling Scott are sporting the Red, White, and Blue in Lima, Peru, this week with the world's best track and field athletes 16-19 years old.
World Athletics puts on the Under 20 World Championships every two years, and Peru plays host in the South American city of Lima this time around. Five days of competition kicked off Tuesday with qualifying and final rounds for most events and morning and evening sessions of competitions every day except for Saturday when things wrap up with just finals during an evening-only session.
Scott and Akins can be seen competing on Broadcast on Peacock
Mizzou's Scott Leaping for Another International Medal
University of Missouri freshman jumper Sterling Scott is looking to cap off a stellar freshman season for the Tigers. Scott had an immediate impact on the SEC and NCAA after arriving from Starkville, Mississippi. Although Scott had already compiled an amazing resume as one of the country's best before arriving in Columbia.
What a HS Senior Year
Sterling Scott was a runner-up at the 2023 Nike Indoor Nationals in the triple jump with a mark of 50-2. He extended his high school personal best to 50-11 at his school's division meet and followed with a long jump best of 24-8 at the region meet. Scott won the Mississippi 6A triple jump title and placed 3rd in the long jump. Scott improved on his indoor national 2nd place finish with a New Balance Nationals Outdoor title, winning the triple jump in Philadelphia with a 50-0 jump.
Then at the 2023 USATF Under 20 Championships in Oregon, Scott jumped to a 3rd place finish and ended up making the USA Team that competes every other year in the Pan American Under 20 Games. In Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, competing among athletes from countries of North, South, and Central America, Scott shined wearing red, white, and blue.
Scott entered the competition with the third-best personal record (PR) in the field, ahead of his USA teammate. So a medal was a reality, especially after several athletes scratched from the competition. However, it wouldn't have mattered because on his first attempt, Scott bypassed any chance of earning a medal of bronze or sterling shade.
Scott flew down the Mayaguez Athletics Stadium runway on his first attempt and hopped, skipped, and jumped 15.67m/51-5! That earned him a 6-inch PR and put him into first. He followed with his 2nd best jump ever, a 15.58m/51-1.5, which came with a strong 3.0 m/s tailwind. Two others hit the 50-foot mark, but the runner-up was far back at 15.28m/50-1.75. Scott fouled on his 3rd attempt then passed on his final three and claimed the 2023 Pan American U20 Games triple jump gold medal by 1-3.25, or over 15 inches.
MIZZOU
Scott joined a strong jumps program at Mizzou for head coach Brett Halter and jumps coach Iliyan Chamov. He wasted no time making his mark and adding to Tigers jumps success.
This year, Scott won the bronze medal in the triple jump at the SEC Indoor Championships with a personal best of 16.14m/52-11.5. Two weeks later, Scott earned 2nd-Team All-America honors with an 11th-place NCAA Indoor Championships finish in his first season in the Black and Gold.
Outdoors, Scott placed 5th at the SEC Outdoor meet before placing 11th at the SEC West Preliminary Championships or First Round to qualify for the national meet. At Oregon's Hayward Field, Scott leaped to a 14th-place finish out of 24 for another 2nd-Team All-America finish.
While many college freshmen will soon turn 20, Scott won't until next summer, so he jumped for another top finish at the USATF U20 Championships. He placed 2nd in Eugene to earn a berth to the U20 World Championships with a 15.77m/51-9 mark.
U20 Worlds
Scott competed in the triple jump qualifying round Tuesday morning. Competing in a field of 20, Scott had a 1st attempt of 3 of 15.22m/49-11. Scott needed to finish in the top 12 or hit 16 meters/52-5.75 to advance to the final automatically. On his 2nd jump, he improved to 15.79m/51-9.5. In his final leap Scott soared to a PR of 16.29m/53-5.25 to finish atop Group B and the ten competitors on that runway.
Scott finished 2nd overall behind only New Zealand's Ethan Oliver who went 16.37m/53-8.5 on his first and only attempt.
Finals Thursday, 5:22 pm
Scott and 11 others take to the runway for the triple jump finals at 5:22 pm Thursday.
New Zealand's Ethan Oliver is the favorite with by far the top personal best of 17.01m/55-9.5. He placed 4th at the 2022 U20 Championships and placed 30th at the Paris Olympics three weeks ago. China's Hetong Xu has the 2nd best PR with a 16.31m/53-6 mark.
Sterling Scott leads a group of 5 men with PRs of 16 meters to 16.29. He'll likely need to be near that 16.29m mark to contend for a medal.
While last year's Pan American Games was a competition among countries and athletes from the western hemisphere, this is Scott's last chance to compete as a junior or U20 athlete, and he gets to do it against the whole world. China, New Zealand, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan, France, Australia, Bulgaria. Those are the countries of the athletes Scott faces in the final.
While the USA routinely brings home sprint and sprint relay medals from the U20 World Championships, medals in the jumps come less often. A medal or even the experience of coming through late in the competition with a clutch jump to contend could be another cog or step in the journey to greatness for Scott.
The top 8 athletes after three rounds advance and get three more attempts to improve their place or earn a medal.
Raytown South Alum & South Carolina Fr Zaya Akins Poised for U20 Medals 2nd Time Around
Kansas City native Zaya Akins is arguably the greatest Missouri high school female track and field athlete ever. The sprint superstar for Raytown South High School. The only time she lost a race while on Missouri soil was her junior year when she didn't finish the 200-meter prelim shortly after it started her junior year. She also won three 400-meter dash national titles.
Her junior year, in front of her club coach CB Cadenhead's eyes and stopwatch, she placed 2nd at the USATF Under 20 Championships to qualify for the U20 World Championships in Cali, Colombia. In a USA uniform for the first time, Akins struggled.
In the 400 1st round heats, she ran 55.23 to place 23 and get the 2nd to last qualifying spot for the semifinals. Akins improved in the semis, racing to a 13th place finish in 53.62, but came up short of the final. Akins rebounded strong in the 4x400 prelims. She ran the 2nd-fastest split of any athlete of the 16 teams with a 52.13 3rd leg to lead Team USA to victory in 3:32.94. The US swapped in three new legs for the final and Akins was left to watch a loaded 4x400 final squad that added Shawnti Jackson and Roisin Willis win in 3:28.06, earning Team USA and Akins a gold medal.
Akins runs 400 finals Thursday @ 6:45 pm on Peacock
She'll likely run the 4x400 prelims on Friday at 11:30 a.m. while the 4x400 finals are Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
Stay tuned... being updated
