The world witnessed three thrilling finals on Friday in the women’s and men’s 200m and the women’s triple jump events where three stars of the Americas took home the gold and a World Championship title.
On a night full of action in Budapest, Hungary at the World Athletics Championships, the stars of the Americas shined bright on the sport’s biggest stage.
The first to showcase her talents was Venezuela’s triple jump legend Yulimar Rojas. After starting out the competition with a fault on her first jump, she managed to make the finals with a flight of 14.36m on her third jump. Although her next two jumps would have given her the lead, both were counted as faults.
Yulimar saved her best for last, willing her way to a final jump of 15.08m to put her in first place by just eight centimeters. However, five athletes remained in the competition with one jump to best Rojas. In the end, no one could top her final jump leaving Yulimar with her fourth outdoor World Championship title ahead of Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (15m) of Ukraine and Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez (14.96m).
Next up came the premier sprinting events of the evening, with the women’s and men’s 200m races closing out an exciting day of competition. The fastest women in the world went first, led by 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson of the United States, defending 200m world champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica and rising star of Team USA Gabrielle Thomas.
Although all eyes were on Richardson after her impressive victory in the 100m, Shericka Jackson stormed out of the blocks and absolutely dominated the competition. Jackson ran an incredible 21.41 seconds to set a new World Championship record and the second-fastest time in history behind Florence Griffith-Joyner of the U.S. who ran a 21.34 at the Olympics in 1988.
U.S. teammates Gabby Thomas and Sha’Carri Richardson finished with the silver in 21.81 and bronze in 21.92 seconds respectively to round out the incredibly fast podium.
The final race of the night was the men’s 200m sprint, with young stars such as Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton and Kenny Bednarek of the United States squaring off against Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, Andre de Grasse of Canada and Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic, among others in the fastest 200m field ever assembled.
Lyles came into the race as the favorite who was also looking to make history by both defending his 200m World Championship title from 2022 and becoming the first U.S. athlete in 16 years to win both the men’s 100m and 200m at the same World Championships.
The 26-year-old speedster did not disappoint, blazing to the gold medal in 19.52 seconds. He won by more than 0.20 seconds as his teammate 19-year-old teammate Erriyon Knighton won the silver in 19.75 seconds followed by Botswana’s 100m silver medalist Tebogo who earned the bronze in the 200m in 19.81 seconds.
Although she didn’t come home with a gold medal, Colombia’s Flor Ruiz Hurtado also made history at the World Championships on Friday with her new South American record of 65.47m in the javelin throw. It seemed that Ruiz Hurtado was on her way to the gold medal before Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi launched the javelin 66.73m on her final attempt to win the world title and leave Colombia’s new star as a silver medalist.
