USA’s Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, unbeaten all season in the women’s 100m, translated that form into tangible reward in the steamy heat of Tokyo as she floated away to earn her first individual global title in a championship record of 10.61 – putting her fourth on the world all-time list.
She won at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 on Sunday (14) by 0.15, the second-biggest winning margin in World Championships history. Her performance also equalled the fastest ever time at a global championships, tied with Elaine Thompson-Herah’s Olympic record from the Tokyo Games in the same stadium in 2021.
The 24-year-old was followed home by Jamaica’s 21-year-old Tina Clayton, who ran a personal best of 10.76, with St Lucia’s Olympic champion Julien Alfred securing bronze in 10.84 despite pulling her hamstring.
“I came in as a hunter,” Olympic bronze medallist Jefferson-Wooden said after her landmark effort. “I have never won a world or an Olympic 100m title, and I worked for that this whole year.”
The principal prey, on this occasion, was her contemporary Alfred, who had secured St Lucia’s first Olympic medal in the French capital.
Alfred also secured her country’s first World Athletics Championships medal.
“I am blessed to win this medal,” she said. “It was not my time today. I pulled my hamstring, so we will see for the 200m.”
Meanwhile, the end of a glorious era was signalled as Clayton’s 38-year-old teammate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who won this title five times between 2009 and 2022, produced a final, beaming flourish in what will be her last global championships as she finished sixth in 11.03.
“It is a great feeling to put Jamaica back on the podium on the world stage,” said Clayton. “It was an honour to compete with Shelly-Ann. She was someone I looked up to when I grew up. I always wanted to be like her one day, and this is like a dream come true.”
Jefferson-Wooden, whose previous best of 10.65 had come in the US trials, repeated the mid-season victory she had earned over Alfred, whose victory in last month’s Diamond League Final had rekindled hopes that she could add a second outdoor global gold to the one she won in Paris last summer.
Alfred, who had declared herself as being where she wanted to be after her Diamond League title win and ready to add “another gold” to her collection, had laid down a potent marker in clocking the fastest heat time of 10.93 the previous day. She replicated that to win her semifinal, despite slowing over the final 30 metres.
But Jefferson-Wooden had responded superbly by clocking the fastest semifinal time of 10.73 – with apparent ease.
Jefferson-Wooden’s time in the final was only 0.01 shy of the lifetime best of Fraser-Pryce, whose career includes two Olympic titles and a total of 10 World Championships golds. She will have one more tilt for a global podium in the 4x100m in Tokyo.
“It was not easy,” an elated Jefferson-Wooden said after her victory – speaking as swiftly as she had run. “It looked that way, but it wasn’t. There was a lot of preparation involved, a lot of hard work. At the end of the day, the main thing was the focus on my execution.
“I felt I got out good – then it was ‘get to the line, get to the line’. Then, trying to look for the time I ran… ‘Oh my gosh, I won. Oh my gosh, it was 10.61!”
Meanwhile, Fraser-Pryce – her head bearing the national colours – acknowledged the reception she had earned upon being introduced to the packed arena.
“It felt really good,” she said. “Now I’m looking forward to the 4x100m.”
The third Jamaican in the final, two-time world 200m champion Shericka Jackson, finished one place off the podium in 10.88.
One place behind her, in a season’s best of 10.94, was the defending champion Sha’Carri Richardson of the United States.
Richardson missed one of the six automatic places for the final – just as she did before winning this title in Budapest two years ago from lane 9.
Her slip at the start of her semifinal, which tipped four others into error, prompted a green card. And as the field got away at the second attempt, her stumble during her transition left her second-from-last with everything to do. She did it, just, finishing third in a season’s best of 11.00 and waiting it out before discovering that it was good enough to progress to the final.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
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