Budapest (AFP) – Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Kenny Bednarek bagged memorable sprint doubles, and Alison dos Santos turned on the 400m hurdles afterburners to wrap up the Ultimate Championship in Budapest in sensational style on Sunday. After both Americans clinched 100m crowns on Saturday, they delivered the goods for a second time of asking in their respective 200m races in front of a raucous sell-out 20,000 strong crowd. Each will leave the Hungarian capital $300,000 better off as athletes battled for the lion’s share of a bumper $10 million prize pot on offer.
In a scintillating night of track and field action, hurdles king Dos Santos again shone, while Britain’s Josh Kerr won a keenly-fought 1,500m and Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi caught the imagination of the public. World champion Jefferson-Wooden scorched to a sensational 21.47 seconds for victory in the 200m to wrap up 11 finals on a heady third and final day of action of the inaugural championship. The 25-year-old’s time was the fourth fastest ever run. Only world record holder Florence Griffith Joyner (21.34) and Jamaican Shericka Jackson (21.41 and 21.45) have gone faster.
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“I never thought that people like Usain Bolt would watch my races and even have great reactions to my performances,” she said of the onlooking Jamaican sprint legend. Bednarek, a two-time Olympic silver medallist, was similarly impressive, winning in 19.52sec to put him seventh on the all-time list. Fresh from setting a new world record in the 400m hurdles in Zurich, Dos Santos again did not disappoint, roaring to another impressive victory, this time in 45.98sec. It was the third fastest time ever run in the gruelling event behind his own world record of 45.80sec and the previous WR of 45.94 set by Karsten Warholm when winning Olympic gold in Tokyo.
American Rai Benjamin came in second in 46.40sec — to go with his second-placed showing in the 400m flat — with Norway’s Warholm (46.78) rounding out the podium in a high-quality race. “I just wanted to go out there and run as fast as I could,” said Dos Santos. “I knew there would be pressure. I knew everybody would give their best and fight all the way to the line, and I knew coming off the eighth hurdle into the final part of the race it was going to be a real battle.”
Kerr, in the absence of Norway’s 5,000m winner Jakob Ingebrigtsen, produced a devastating last lap to seal a dominant victory in the 1,500m. The Scot, fresh from setting a new world record in the mile, hit the front with 300 metres to run and clocked 3min 29.35sec for victory ahead of 20-year-old Australian Cameron Myers. “I didn’t race a lot this season, so I kind of came here fresh and ready to go,” said Kerr.
Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati pulled off a surprise in the men’s 800m, outsprinting Canada’s Olympic champion Marco Arop for the win in 1:41.91, with Kenya’s world gold medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi in third. “That was very tactical but also very fast, and I am really happy to have won this race today, it’s my first title,” said Sedjati.
American world silver medallist Jasmine Jones won the women’s 400m hurdles in 52.45sec, while Likina Amebaw of Ethiopia dominated the women’s 5,000m with victory in 14:30.36. And the US quartet of Chris Bailey, Alexis Holmes, Jacory Patterson, and Aaliyah Butler won the 4x400m mixed relay in 3:08.32 ahead of Britain and the Netherlands.
In the field, Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage dominated the men’s javelin with a best of 91.09m. Grenada’s Anderson Peters was second, almost 5m off the Diamond League and Commonwealth champion’s winning effort. “This was my one and only goal: to bring the trophy back to Sri Lanka,” said Pathirage. “My next goal is to bring the Olympic gold medal home.”
The men’s high jump came down to a duel between American JuVaughn Harrison and Italy’s Tamberi, who won world gold in Budapest in 2023. Tamberi, 34 and sporting a half-shaved face, jumped a world lead of 2.37m for victory in a gripping competition that fully engaged a sell-out 20,000-strong crowd. And Senegal’s Saly Sarr held off a Cuban challenge for victory in the women’s triple jump with a best of 15.06m.
© 2024 AFP
