Africa’s 38-Year Domination of Men’s Distance Events At World U20s SNAPPED By Norway’s Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen

On Thursday, 18-year-old Norwegian Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen accomplished something that his more famous countryman Jakob Ingebrigtsen never did: he won a gold medal at the World Athletics U20 Championships (aka World Juniors) in Lima, Peru by running 8:20.56 to win the 3,000 meters. The best finish at the World U20 championships for the double Olympic champ Ingebrigtsen, who was a teen phenom (the youngest man in history to break 4:00 in the mile, double European champion at the age of 17, and holder of a slew of age group records), was a silver medal in the 1500 in 2018.

Halvorsen’s accomplishment goes far beyond Norway, however: Halvorsen is the first man born outside of Africa to win a distance event at World U20s in 38 years. Spain’s Jon Azkueta won the 2000-meter steeplechase at the inaugural World U20 champs in 1986 — then officially known as World Juniors. Until Thursday, that remained the only distance gold ever won by a non-African-born man: since 1986, every subsequent men’s gold medal in the 1500, 5000, 10,000, steeplechase, and 3000 (which replaced the 10,000 in 2021) had been claimed by an athlete born in Africa. Add it up and that is 73 wins in a row for African-born runners.

Of those 73 golds, the vast majority were earned by just two nations: 45 by Kenya and 20 by Ethiopia. The remaining eight were divided between Uganda (3), Morocco (3), Algeria (1), and Qatar (1). Qatar’s gold was won in 2012 in the 1500m by Hamza Driouch, who was born in Morocco.

Seventy-three straight golds sounds unbelievable, and some suspect that age-cheating — a recent focus of the Athletics Integrity Unit — may have contributed to that number. But the trend actually mirrored what had been going on for a long time at the senior level. From 1987 to 2022, African-born men won 64 straight golds in the 1500/5k/10k/steeple at the senior World Championships, something we discussed at length in an article last year.

African nations have been almost as dominant at World U20s when you extend the range to include the 800, winning 16 of 19 golds in the history of the meet. The only exceptions in that event were Great Britain’s David Sharpe in 1986, Australia’s Paul Byrne in 1994, and Qatar’s Majid Saeed Sultan (who was born in Kenya) in 2004.

Nationalities of World U20 men’s mid-d/distance gold medalists, 1986-2024

How did Halvorsen do it? Obviously he’s a big talent. Last year, at age 17, he ran 7:47.04, a time that made him the top seed in the final in Lima (and was faster than Ingebrigtsen’s 7:56.74 pb at the same age).

It also helped that, starting in 2021, World Athletics replaced the 10,000 at World U20s with the 3,000. The result is that they have divided the talent pool for distance runners as the best 5,000 runners are also probably going to be the best 3,000 runners. For instance, the two Kenyans in the 5,000 in Lima, Andrew Alamisi and Ishmael Kipkirui, both have 5,000 pbs of 13:05. Meanwhile the Kenyan 3,000 team of Clinton Kimutai and Denis Kipkoech have run 13:52 and 13:56 (granted, both of those times were at altitude in Nairobi).

It’s also worth noting that Ethiopia has three U20 men who have broken 7:40 for 3,000 this year, led by 17-year-old Biniam Mehary (7:33), who was 6th in the Olympic 5,000 final in Paris. But none of those three ran at World U20s.

Whatever the reason, Halvorsen’s run on Thursday was a history-making performance. And we could see more history on Saturday in Lima. After going 38 years between non-African-born distance victories, we could see two in three days: Australia’s Cameron Myers, who has run 3:50 in the mile this year, is one of the favorites in the men’s 1500 final.

Talk about Halvorsen’s historic run on the world-famous LetsRun.com messageboard / fan forum:

MB: Norway has a new phenom? Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen accomplishes something Jakob Ingebrigtsen never did – Wins World Jr Gold.

Editor’s note: The stat that this article was based on – that Halvorsen was the first non-African-born man to win a flat men’s distance race at World U-20s was discovered and researched by LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson.