What did Ducks do at World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon 26? | News | Oregon 26 | World Athletics U20 Championships
Feature10 Aug 2026
What did Ducks do at World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon 26?
Simon Rosselli wins gold at the World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon 26 (© Getty Images
Steph Chambers)
With the World Athletics U20 Championships Oregon 26 at Hayward Field this week, its resident Ducks took it upon themselves to defend home turf. Five current or future Oregon track and field athletes took the spotlight in Eugene to the tune of three medals — headlined by Simon Rosselli’s men’s discus gold on the final day of competition
Jaslene Massey won silver in the women’s discus before pivoting to shot put, while Mia Mireia Uusorg made a second-day jump into the podium in the heptathlon. Ellery Lincoln finished fifth in the women’s 1500-meter final, and Juan Gonzalez took 12th in the men’s 5,000-meter
Simon Rosselli wins men’s discus with final-round stunner
Simon Rosselli sealed his men’s discus final berth Saturday with one throw. Sunday, he needed all six
Rosselli, who will throw alongside Massey for the Ducks in 2026, threw a personal-best mark in the first round, but was relegated to fifth by the last round. Given that opportunity, the man who says he doesn’t usually get nerves felt something new
“I was really very nervous going into the last throw, because all I had to do differently was calm down and relax,” Rosselli said. “ But to calm down and relax really meant I was going to have to slow down everything going into that last throw, because I had a lot of pressure. I had a lot of stress.”
With those nerves handled, he turned and launched for 66.39 meters. It wasn’t just another personal best, and it didn’t just swoop his name back to the top of the leaderboard. Simon Rosselli, the new American U20 record holder, was unassailable as the gold medal settled around his neck
“I just had to walk out there and protect my home,” Rosselli said. “I know no one can beat me in Hayward, and that’s nothing but affirmed now.”
Jaslene Massey takes discus silver in field event frenzy
2026 U.S. U20 discus and shot put champion Jaslene Massey returned to her future home this week after dominating in Eugene earlier this summer. While she didn’t capture gold, Massey turned in a pair of strong performances to secure silver in the discus and eighth place in the shot put
After she threw 58.41mon her sixth attempt to wrap up her discus competition and lock in that silver medal Thursday night, Massey didn’t even leave the infield. A marshal walked her from the cage to the ring, where she had nine minutes to warm up
“A lot of people thought it was crazy,” Massey said. “My heart was pounding out of my chest. I’m just happy to make the final in two events on the world stage — that was goal one. Goal two was to get a medal, and I got a medal in my main event.”
To get that medal, she needed some help from Michael
Massey’s grandfather, Gary Edwards, spent her childhood introducing her to as many sports as he could find — ballet (not her favorite), then skating (which stuck.) He would play Michael Jackson records so much that they became “rooted,” Massey said, in who she was
Before her sixth attempt in the discus, the King of Pop started playing over the Hayward Field speakers. She started to tear up
“Just to throw to Michael Jackson on the world stage, I’m just like, ‘Oh, wait, this is kind of sweet,” Massey said
She had a medal locked in, but sat in third before her final attempt. What came next — the 58.41; the silver medal; the pictures with the flag — is the skill she’s bringing to Oregon
“I mean, you can’t do anything better than the two best recruits in the country,” Simon Rosselli, her future teammate, said. “Jas is unbelievable — as much as I’ll make fun of her and tell her otherwise, to double in the world championships is something special.”
Massey will join Oregon this fall under throws coach Brian Blutreich alongside Rosselli
Read more of Massey’s story here
Heptathlete goes ninth to second on final day of competition
Mia Mireia Uusorg has already felt the Hayward magic. This weekend, she got a little extra push from it
The Estonian sat ninth in the heptathlon after the first day of competition. After 20th and 14th-place finishes in the high jump and shot put left her 14th overall, the magic started with second-place points in the 200-meter in the last event of that first day
From there, she caught fire. Two more podium finishes, in the long jump and javelin throw, took her from ninth all the way up to third place. Only the 800-meter stood between her and a medal
But she “hates” that event, she said
“I know it’s gonna hurt after the first lap — 400 meters in one minute, it’s gonna hurt anyway,” Uusorg said. “I don’t know why, but it does always. I had to push through.”
Uusorg battled through, telling herself that she’d “done it a million times before” and sparked a personal-best 2:13.90 in the final push. She ended the competition with 5961 points, only trailing Finland’s Enni Virjonen’s world U20-leading 6214 and 138 points off her own personal-best
“Before my career, I didn’t push too good,” Uusorg said. “Today I feel like I really got 100% out of me.”
That’s what Uusorg is bringing to Oregon when she joins the Ducks. She’ll head to campus in the fall, she said, after a well-deserved rest
“I’m going to keep my mind sharp,” she said. “I’m going to come back even stronger.”
Ellery Lincoln ends “perfect” year in women’s 1500-meter
Ellery Lincoln, a 2027 Ducks commit who has dominated the OSAA scene from Lincoln High School, stepped onto a major stage for the second time this summer at Hayward Field Sunday.
After finishing eighth in the women’s 1500-meter at The Prefontaine Classic in July, Lincoln returned to her future home track for the same race at the World Athletics U20 Championships, where a 16th-overall qualifying slot in the first round, second in her heat, booked her a spot in Sunday’s final
“I think some people say the prelim can be a little bit scarier than the final,” Lincoln said after that semifinal race. “Just because there’s a little bit of stakes — can I make it?”
Despite that tactical style turning the final into a “jogfest,” Lincoln said, she stuck with the pace through three laps. It turned into a sprint over the final 400m — one she couldn’t keep up with — and she landed fifth. It’s where she felt she fit in
“I think this is absolutely the perfect end to what’s been a comeback year and a breakthrough year,” Lincoln said. “I think almost meeting my expectation was the perfect ending for me. No more, no less. I know I can trust in exactly what I’ve proven to myself that I can do.”
The high school senior still has another season of prep track left before she runs in green in Eugene, but she’s no longer a stranger to that world stage
“Now that I’ve been here, it feels like an eye opener, and I’m really ready to keep stepping it up in the next few years,” she said
Juan Gonzalez steps up in men’s 5,000-meter
Oregon rising sophomore Juan Gonzalez finished 12th in the men’s 5,000-meter final Wednesday night in 13:59.00
“I just wanted to go out there and put myself in it,” Gonzalez said. “I knew there was a lot of good competition out here, and you can’t really take anything for granted. You’ve just got to go out there and use every opportunity to the best advantage and use that moving forward.”
Gonzalez now turns his attention to the Ducks’ ascendant cross country program, which is coming off a 2025 Big Ten Championship
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