Nine days after Commonwealth gold at Scotstoun — and a night out with the Australian team — Isaac Beacroft has completed the double at Hayward Field, breaking the world U20 record for the 5000m walk.
It completes a double almost no one attempts, let alone lands. Nine days earlier the 19-year-old had outkicked Kenya’s Stephen Ndangiri Kihu by just over a second to win the Commonwealth Games 10,000m walk title in Glasgow. He is now Commonwealth champion and world U20 champion inside a fortnight, courtesy of a 18:40.37 performance.
What makes it faintly ridiculous is what happened in between. Beacroft had two days in Glasgow to recover before flying to the United States, and he did not spend them with his feet up.
“It was pretty difficult to come from Glasgow, I had a day or two after my race to try and freshen up,” he said.
“I didn’t really freshen up there, I went out with the Commonwealth Games boys and girls.
“I didn’t go too hard on the partying but there was some definitely done, then it was pretty rough to travel here.
“There was a delay with the plane.”
The celebrations, the transatlantic flight, the delay… and then a world record.
“I’m over the moon, I couldn’t be happier,” Beacroft said.
“I knew coming in it was going to be so hard, it definitely was pretty hard, so I’m just so happy to get it done.
“It’s a massive relief.”
The relief is the telling word. Arriving in Eugene as a freshly minted Commonwealth champion turned a junior title from an opportunity into an obligation.
“I felt a fair bit of pressure going into this one, you are a Commonwealth Champion, surely it’s a walk in the park to do juniors,” he said.
“It’s definitely not.
“I have raced each race to its merits, I don’t know what is harder.
“I’m stoked to have won both, that’s all I can say on that.”
He credited the Australian team environment in Eugene with getting him right in the days before the race.
“But I think getting here and getting around the whole team has given me a real lift.”
Tingay in line for a Glasgow medal
Beacroft’s Glasgow win may yet have a second Australian beneficiary.
Kihu, who shadowed Beacroft for 9,700 metres at Scotstoun before being outkicked in the final 300, has been provisionally suspended by the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya over an alleged anti-doping rule violation. ADAK records list the charge as the presence of a prohibited substance under S2: the category covering peptide hormones, growth factors and related substances, including EPO.
Kihu, 20, has not been found to have committed a violation and is entitled to contest the allegation.
Should the case be upheld and his Glasgow result disqualified, the medals behind him would shift. Declan Tingay, the Birmingham 2022 silver medallist whose Glasgow race was ended by time in the penalty zone, finished fourth, and would be promoted to bronze.
For now, Beacroft has the only two medals that are beyond dispute. Both of them gold, nine days apart, on opposite sides of the world.
