Australia’s Cameron Myers (men’s 1500m), Izobelle Louison-Roe (women’s high jump) and the women’s 4x400m relay team won silver medals on the final day of the World Athletics U20 Championships 2024 in Lima, Peru on Saturday.

The three silver medals and the bronze won by Australia’s 4x400m men’s team took the country’s overall tally at the 20th edition of the global U20 athletics meet to 14 – their best medal haul in the competition’s history.

The 17-year-old Cameron Myers, who became the world’s fastest 16-year-old miler last year, soared to the silver medal in 3:40.60, just 0.09 seconds behind Ethiopia’s Fayisa Abdisa.

“It’s bittersweet when you follow your race plan, do everything right and someone is just better than you. That’s the reality of this sport sometimes. It’s motivating and I’ll be back stronger,” Myers was quoted saying by Athletics Australia.

Izobelle Louison-Roe, also 17, secured the silver medal in the women’s high jump after clearing a personal best of 1.89m on her first attempt. She finished behind Serbia’s Angelina Topic, who won the gold medal in 1.91m.

“I knew coming in that the competition was really hard because they are all fantastic jumpers. I knew I would have to post a PB to get anywhere, I’m just so excited,” Louison-Roe said after winning the silver medal.

Australia, meanwhile, completed a hat-trick of medals in the 4x400m relay events. The mixed team won the gold medal on the opening day of the competition while the women’s and the men’s teams settled for silver and bronze, respectively, on Saturday.

The women’s team of Amelia Rowe, Bella Pasquali, Jemma Pollard and Sophia Gregorevic clinched the silver medal in 3:31.47, finishing behind the USA, who won the gold medal in 3:30.74.

The men’s 4x400m wrapped up Australia’s campaign at the Atletico de la Videna Stadium with a bronze medal in the final event. Caleb Kilpatrick, Jett Grundy, Jack Deguara and Jordan Gilbert clocked 3:05.53 to finish behind gold medallists USA (3:03.56) and runners-up South Africa (3:05.22).

Australia finished seventh on the Lima 24 medals table with two golds, seven silvers and five bronze. The 4x400m mixed team won the gold medal with an U20 national record while the 18-year-old Delta Amidzovski became the first Australian woman to win a long jump title in the competition.

At the last edition of the U20 World Championships held in Cali, Colombia in 2022, Australia won just two bronze medals with Tiana Boras (women’s triple jump) and Calab Law (men’s 200m) finishing on the podium.