On Thursday in Beijing national champion Huang Haiqiang remained completely focused to claim the men's high jump title and take host country to the top of the World Junior Championships medal table with two golds.

Xue Fei was the first Chinese athlete to earn gold at the championships when she took the women's 5000 meters on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old Huang, who was crowned last October at the Chinese National Games in Nanjing, cleared 2.32 meters while the only other contender Niki Palli of Israel, having cleared 2.29m, failed with all of his three jumps over this height.?

However, the Chinese athlete did have an early scare when he encountered problems at 2.26m but he went on to clear 2.29m an his first attempt.

Ukraine's Bohdan Bondarenko finished third clearing a height of 2.26m but failed at 2.29m.??

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2006)