Canada ends world junior track with 2 medals

The Canadian women's 4x400-metre relay team narrowly missed another record performance in finishing fifth as the IAAF world junior track and field championships wrapped up Sunday in Moncton, N.B.

Katie Reid of Surrey, B.C., Annie Leblanc of Repentigny, Que., Carly Paracholski of Winnipeg and Chanice Taylor-Chase of Ajax, Ont., combined for a time of three minutes, 35.08 seconds, 0.58 seconds off the national junior mark the foursome set in Saturday's heats.

The U.S. team of Diamond Dixon, Stacey-Ann Smith, Laura Roesler, and Regina George won in a world-leading time of 3:31.20, beating Nigeria (3:31.84) and Jamaica (3:32.24). The Bahamas set a national record of 3:33.43 en route to finishing fourth.

"This was an amazing field to run against," Reid said. "We were up against the best in the world and we all ran our best."

The Americans also dominated the men's 4x400 relay, winning gold in  3:04.76, almost two seconds ahead of Nigeria.

Connor McCollough gave the Americans a third gold medal Sunday, tossing a championship record of 80.79 metres in the men's hammer throw.

Together with Casimir Loxsom's silver in the men's 800 and a bronze for Robby Andrews in that event, the U.S. captured five medals on the final day of competition to finish with 15 overall.

That wasn't enough to catch the Kenyans atop the medal standings, who also had 15 medals — seven of them gold versus six for the U.S.

Kenya collected four medals in Sunday's nine events, winning gold and silver in the men's 3,000 steeplechase. Jonathan Muia Ndiku defended his title, crossing in 8:23.48 for the 13th Kenyan victory in 13 editions of the world junior event. Albert Kiptoo Yator made it the ninth time the country finished 1-2 in the event.

Kenya's David Mutinda Mutua added gold in the men's 800 metres in 1:46.41, while Nancy Chepkwemoi won bronze in the women's 1,500 metres that was won by Ethiopia's Tizita Bogale in 4:08.06.

Canada's relay result capped a successful home country effort, with 10 top-eight performances that beat the previous best of eight. Canada finished tied for 13th in the placing table with 37 points.

Canada's medallists Taylor Stewart and Aaron Brown carried the IAAF and Canadian flags into the stadium for the closing ceremonies.  Stewart won bronze in long jump while Brown was third in the 200 metres.

The Canadian athletes were thrilled with the support they received from the sizable Moncton crowds.

"It was amazing," Brown said at the closing news conference.

The Toronto sprinter ran six races in total, saying "Then at night I would sit down and remember the crowds."

In other finals Sunday, Aleksey Fedorov of Russia soared 16.68 metres to win the triple jump, while Marija Vuckovic, the first athlete from Montenegro ever to compete in the world juniors, cleared 1.91 metres to win gold in women's high jump.

Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagard won the 110-metre hurdles in 13.52 seconds.

More than 1,400 athletes from 163 countries competed in 44 events during the week-long event at the new 10,000-seat Moncton 2010 Stadium. The 19-and-under competition was the largest sporting event ever held in Atlantic Canada.

IAAF secretary-general Pierre Weiss called the event a "great championships, close to our best ever."

Larry Nelson, president of the organizing committee, used the stage of the closing ceremonies to acknowledge the spectators, the army of volunteers and the visiting delegations.

"Thank you for the memories you have created," Nelson said. "This event has forever changed this community."