Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Tara Davis-Woodhall secured their spots for the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 in style, setting world leads during the first two days of action at the US Championships in Eugene on Thursday and Friday (31-1).
Jefferson-Wooden stormed to the 100m title in a PB of 10.65 (0.4m/s) – a time that moves her to equal fifth on the world all-time list. The 24-year-old remains unbeaten in the discipline this year – the last time she was beaten in the 100m was at the Olympic Games in Paris, where she clinched bronze.
In Eugene, she opened with a 10.86 heat win into a -1.5m/s headwind, before winning her semifinal in 10.84 (-0.3m/s). She then blazed to victory in the final on Friday, improving her PB by 0.08 to beat Kayla White (10.84 PB) and Aleia Hobbs (10.92), who will join Jefferson-Wooden on the team for Tokyo, as the top five all dipped under 11 seconds.
The men’s 100m final was also fast. Two-time Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek moved to second on this season’s top list with 9.79 (1.8m/s) to win ahead of Courtney Lindsey (9.82) and T’Mars McCallum (9.83) – each member of that trio setting a PB to secure their spot on the team for Tokyo. Maurice Gleaton ran a North American U20 record of 9.92 to finish sixth.
After running in the heats, 2023 world champions Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson did not return to contest the semifinals but they have both already qualified for Tokyo due to being the defending champions.
Davis-Woodhall twice improved the world lead to eventually take the long jump title with a 7.12m (1.2m/s) leap on the first day of the championships.
The Olympic champion rebounded after two fouls, leaping 6.92m in the third round to move into second place and secure a further three jumps. She then soared a world lead of 7.11m on her next try and followed that by going a centimetre farther in the fifth round and ending her series with 6.91m.
World indoor champion Claire Bryant was second with a slightly wind-assisted 6.97m (2.1m/s) and Quanesha Burks was third on countback with 6.90m.
DeAnna Price, the 2019 world champion, won the hammer title ahead of 2022 world gold medallist Brooke Andersen, 78.53m to 75.14m, and Rudy Winkler clinched the men’s hammer crown (81.47m).
Two close 10,000m finals were won by Nico Young from Grant Fisher (29:02.12 to 29:02.37) and Emily Infeld from Elise Cranny (31:43.56 to 31:44.24).
Competing over both days, Kyle Garland achieved a PB of 8869 points to win the decathlon – the second-highest score in the world so far this year. His series included PBs of 10.44 in the 100m, 16.95m in the shot put, 50.93m in the discus and 65.52m in the javelin.
After moving to equal second on the world all-time list with a score of 7032 points to win the heptathlon in Götzis a month ago, Anna Hall returned with another winning performance. The two-time world medallist this time achieved 6899 points to win ahead of Taliyah Brooks, who achieved the World Championships standard with her PB score of 6526.
World 400m hurdles record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone went fastest in the 400m heats, clocking 49.59.
Results
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