Athletics: Vandermade within sight of junior gold

Jordan Vandermade of New Zealand competes in a 400 metres heat during the Men's Decathlon at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Beijing. Andrew Wong / Getty Images

New Zealand's Jordan Vandermade is within sight of a decathlon gold medal at the world junior athletics championships in Beijing.

At the halfway stage after five events, Aucklander Vandermade had compiled 4180 points, just 22 behind Cuban leader Garcia Yordanis. Third-placed Russian Arkadiy Vasilyev was 71 behind Vandermade.

The New Zealander made his move in the final event of the first day, the 400m, where he clocked the fastest time of 48.96 seconds. It made up 57 points on Yordanis.

Earlier Vandermade threw a personal best of 14.97m in the shot put, one of his least favoured events, t o keep him on the pace. He also opened with a personal best in the 100m of 10.86sec.

Geraldine's Kieran Fowler was ninth on 3872 points.

Shafat Salad, of Hamilton, finished 12th in his 3000m steeplechase heat in nine minutes 11.16 seconds but did not qualify for the final.

Wellington's Nick Kalivati made the semifinals of the 400m hurdles after producing a personal best 52.97sec for fifth place in his heat. But he was one of the fastest four outside the heat winners.

- NZPA