TOKYO (AP) — Usain Bolt went crazy up in a luxury box.
Down below, sprinters in his country’s familiar colors -- black, green and, of course, gold --- were wreaking havoc on the track.
It was a good night for America, too, as the sport's past and the future collided in back-to-back 100-meter finals at world championships on a steamy Sunday in Tokyo.
Jamaica’s Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson sent Bolt into celebration mode by combining for a 1-2 finish in the men’s 100-meter sprint, while defending
champion Noah Lyles took bronze.
Moments earlier, America’s Melissa Jefferson-Wooden had romped to a win in a women’s sprint that featured a newcomer silver medalist in Jamaica’s Tina Clayton, a fond farewell for the island country’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who finished sixth, and a fifth-place finish from Sha’Carri Richardson, who never found her stride this year.
“It’s a changing of the guard, in a sense,” Jefferson-Wooden said. “You’re going to see some new faces and things like that. It’s great competition.”
Seville won the men’s race in a career-best 9.77 seconds, fulfilling the promise he’s shown since he made his Olympic debut in this stadium four years ago, but didn't get out of the semifinals.
He works with Bolt’s old coach, Glen Mills, and though the sprinters don’t have much in common physically -- Seville is 5-foot-7 and Bolt is 6-4 -- they know how to race. And celebrate.
Seville was first out of the starting block, then fell behind, but kept his cool and steadily reeled in Thompson, two lanes to his left, to win the title.
The new champion paraded shirtless around the track after the race -- not exactly Bolt’s “To Di World” pose, but there’s time to improve. The LA Olympics are three years away.
“We are just rewriting history,” said Seville, the first Jamaican man to win the 100 at worlds since Bolt in 2015.
This also marked the first 1-2 finish for Jamaica in the 100 at a major championship since Bolt and Yohan Blake did it at the London Olympics in 2012.
Asked about the new crop of Jamaicans before the race, Bolt predicted the 1-2 finish. Less than an hour later, Seville and Thompson went out and proved him right.
“These guys have proven themselves throughout the season," Bolt said. “The moment is big, it's just that sometimes it's a little stressful. So hopefully they can handle that stress and get their moment.”
The 24-year-old Jefferson-Wooden turned her race into a laugher right away.
She got about a step ahead of Olympic champion 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 finished in 10.61, breaking Richardson's two-year-old world-championship mark by .04.
Her margin of .15 seconds over Clayton was a blowout — the same gap Alfred, the Olympic champion who finished third this time, beat Richardson by in Paris last year.
“This year was about accepting that I wanted to be a better athlete, and putting in the work to do so,” Jefferson-Wooden said.
Richardson, who trains alongside Jefferson-Wooden, wasn’t the same runner as last year or the year before when she won worlds.
While Jefferson-Wooden jumped and shouted into the stands before draping the American flag around her shoulders, Richardson slowly paced the inside of the track with her hands on hips.
Meanwhile, the second-place finish for Clayton put Jamaica on the podium on the night its best female sprinter, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, bid adieu in the 100 with a sixth-place finish.
The “Mommy Rocket” has 16 medals at worlds with a chance for one more if she runs in next weekend’s relays.
“She’s amazing, she’s my idol and who I look up to,” Clayton said. “Competing with her was an honor.”
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Another American success story came in the long-jump pit, where Tara Davis-Woodhall took care of yet another piece of unfinished business, adding the long jump world championship to the Olympic title she won last year.
The victory in Tokyo comes two years after a second-place finish at worlds left her disappointed and sparked her to rededicate herself to the sport.
And it comes four years after a sixth-place finish here in Tokyo gave her a taste of just how good she could be.
“My Olympic gold medal now has a friend,” said Davis-Woodhall, whose winning jump was 7.13 meters (23 feet, 4 3/4 inches).
Also in the field, America's Valarie Allman captured gold in the discus throw to round out her set of gold-silver-bronze from worlds. She also has two Olympic titles.
With three-time champion Joshua Cheptegei now running marathons, the men's 10,000 meters seemed like a wide-open race. Still, this was a surprise.
Jimmy Gressier of France, known mostly as a road racer, outsprinted Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelca to the finish line to bring a distance gold medal home to France.
The win comes a year after the French managed only a single silver medal at the Olympic track meet on home turf.
How will he celebrate?
“I need to sleep, but I probably won't sleep because my body is so on fire,” Gressier said.
Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir needed a late sprint in the women's marathon to hold off Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia to win gold.
Jepchirchir also won the marathon at the Tokyo Games in 2021, when the race was moved to Sapporo because of the heat.
“When I saw I was 100 meters from the finish, I just started to kick,” Jepchirchir said. “I found some hidden energy.”
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AP Sports Writer Pat Graham contributed.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
