TOKYO (AP) 鈥 Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the U.S. and Oblique Seville of Jamaica won the 100-meter finals at world championships Sunday in a changing of the guard in track.
The 24-year-old Jefferson-Wooden blew away the field, finishing in 10.61 seconds to break Sha’Carri Richardson’s two-year-old world-championship record. Richardson barely squeezed into the final and finished fifth despite running a season-best 10.94.
Seville, also 24 and who works with Usain Bolt’s old coach, Glen Mills, reeled in countryman Kishane Thompson for a win in 9.77. Defending world and Olympic champion Noah Lyles finished third.
Bolt watched this one from a luxury box 鈥 his first return to a big race since he exited the sport in 2017 鈥 and was high-fiving and hugging friends when he watched a Jamaican win the men鈥檚 title for the first time since he left.
There were some who argued Seville, not Thompson 鈥 who adds this silver to his silver from Paris last year 鈥 was the best young sprinter on the island. Seville has a winning record against Lyles, but has not been able to put it together in the biggest races.
This time, he did 鈥 getting the best start, but then falling behind by about two steps halfway through the race, and then, step-by-step, closing the gap on Thompson.
The women鈥檚 race was pretty much over as soon as it started.
Jefferson-Wooden got about a step ahead of Julien Alfred in the lane next to her, then kept expanding her lead and ran hard through the line when she could have coasted. She ended with a .15-second margin over Jamaica鈥檚 Tina Clayton 鈥 the same gap Alfred, who finished third this time, beat Richardson by in Paris last year.
鈥淭his year was about accepting that I wanted to be a better athlete, and putting in the work to do so,鈥 Jefferson-Wooden said.
Richardson, who trains with Jefferson-Wooden, wasn鈥檛 the same runner as last year or the year before when she won worlds.
After finishing third in her semifinal heat, she had to wait to see if she鈥檇 get one of the last two spots. She did and started on the inside in Lane 2, but was never a factor. While Jefferson-Wooden jumped and shouted into the stands, Richardson slowly paced the inside of the track with her hands on hips.
The second-place finish for Clayton kept Jamaica on the podium on the night its best female sprinter, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, said goodbye with a sixth-place finish.
Now, the question becomes whether this is a one-off — sometimes these things are in the year after the Olympics — or if Jefferson-Wooden and Seville are the sprinters to watch with three years and counting until the LA Games.
Jefferson-Wooden certainly looks like a force. A tenor sax player in high school, her college coach once said she sprinted with a form of a kid running on the street. She moved to Florida to train with Dennis Mitchell and alongside Richardson, whose trials and travails have overshadowed all of women鈥檚 track for the past four years.
But Jefferson-Wooden won the U.S. title in 2022 — a year when Richardson was struggling — and took the bronze medal at last year鈥檚 Olympics, after which she declared she was still a baby in the sport with plenty of time to learn. Now, she’s got a piece of history 鈥 the championship record 鈥 and is .12 off the 1988 mark held by Florence Griffith-Joyner.
鈥淥bviously, having the championship record, even though it was 鈥機arri鈥檚, it鈥檚 mine now,鈥 Jefferson-Wooden said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of crazy to say that.鈥
Seville, meanwhile, got the stamp of approval from Bolt, whose coach, Mills, transformed him from a runner too gangly to kneel into the starting block into the greatest of all time. Seville has a ways to go to get there, but he鈥檚 got a great friend to ask for some advice.
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