Winnipeg’s Victoria Tachinski will race in the 800 metre final at the 2016 World U20 Championships in track and field on Thursday.
The Vincent Massey student secured her spot in the final with a second place finish in Wednesday’s semifinal heat in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Tachinski, 17, finished just five one-hundredths of a second behind the United States’ Samantha Watson to qualify for the final. She was caught up in the pack in the first lap around the track but made her move down the stretch.
Both Tachinski and Watson broke away from the rest of the runners with Watson winning by a nose. Tachinski finished the race in a time of 2:04.55.
The top two runners from each of the three semifinal heats and the two athletes with the next best times advanced to the final.
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Tachinski set the Canadian youth record in that distance back in June and she also holds Canadian youth indoor records in the 300m, 400m and 600m distances.
Tachinski will race in the women’s 800 metre final on Thursday starting at 1:45 pm central time.
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