Symon advances to Saturday's w800 final; Powell and Zhmailo both earn top 10 finishes at World U20s...

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Apologies for the delay. I ended up having to go to the hospital as a precautionary measure after falling on the stairs at Hayward Field after Friday night's session and suffering a laceration on my forehead.

EUGENE--Washington rising sophomore Chloe Symon (Paul Merca photo) of Canada advanced to Saturday night's final in the women's 800 meters with a strong charge over the last 200 meters, finishing third in the last of three heats on day 3 of the World Athletics Under 20 Championships at Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus.

At the 400, Symon found herself in eighth place, splitting 62.96, but was close enough to stay in contact with the leaders, as the leader went through in 62.56.

A 31 second third 200 moved the Vancouver BC native up into fifth, still close enough to stay in contention.

Symon charged on the inside coming off the turn to finish in a time of 2:03.22 to grab the final spot into Saturday night's final at 7:17 pm, with only the top three from each heat advancing.

"I tried to play a patient race, and tried to wait until the last 150," Symon said afterwards.

Fellow Husky and Canadian U20 champ Mary MacLean was not as fortunate, finishing eighth in the second heat, running 2:05.78.

In the two finals contested involving Washington affiliated athletes, UW redshirt freshman Owen Powell (Paul Merca photo) finished tenth in the men's 3000 meters.

While pre-race favorite Emmanuel Kiprono of Kenya raced away from the field to run the second fastest ever time by a U20 athlete in a championship record 7:28.28, Powell was part of a group of about ten athletes in the field of 22 athletes vying for the other top positions.

Powell went through the halfway mark in 3:55.99 but found himself in 14th place.

The Mercer Island HS grad started picking people off as the race progressed, finding himself in seventh place with 600 to go.

Despite fading slightly over the last 200, Powell, who was third at the US U20 championships, but qualified by meeting the time standard of 8:04 in Cork, Ireland last month with his previous personal best of 7:59.94, finished by running 7:53.35.

That mark is the ninth fastest all time by an American U20 athlete over the distance.

"The whole season, the goal was to make the 1500 team, but after taking a spill (at the US U20 champs) I was able to rally back. I'm super proud that I rallied back in the 3K."

"The 3K is not my favorite, but you gotta play with the cards you're dealt."

In the other final, Lake Washington HS grad Yevhen Zhmailo (Paul Merca photo) of Ukraine finished ninth in the men's triple jump.

Zhmailo, who will attend the University of Oklahoma this fall had a best on the day of 51-6.25 (15.70m).

In addition to Symon in the finals of the 800 Saturday night, US national U20 champ Simon Rosselli, the Mead/Spokane grad who will attend Oregon this fall, throws in Group B of the men's discus qualifying at 2:15 pm and attempt to advance to Sunday's finals.

Rising senior Miller Warme of Kamiak HS runs in the semifinals of the men's 400 hurdles at 6:41 pm, where he'll try to finish in the top three to advance to Sunday's finals.

The World Athletics Under 20 Championships microsite, which has links to the timetable and live results, is available here.

Peacock ($) will stream all sessions of the World Athletics U20 champs.

NOTE: World Athletics and TrackTown USA contributed to this report.

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