BUDAPEST, Sept 13 (Reuters) – Americans Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Kenny Bednarek completed sprint doubles by winning their 200 metres races on the final night of the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship on Sunday, 24 hours after they raced to 100m victories.
• Jefferson-Wooden laid down the fourth fastest time in history of 21.47 seconds in the women’s 200, while Bednarek won in 19.52. The pair earned $300,000 apiece, $150,000 for each victory.
• Italian Gianmarco Tamberi cleared 2.37 metres to win the men’s high jump title.
• Britain’s Josh Kerr won the men’s 1,500m title, an event that had been billed as a long-awaited showdown with Jakob Ingebrigtsen before the Norwegian, who was victorious over 5,000m on Friday in a remarkable comeback from Achilles surgery, announced his withdrawal a day earlier.
• Fresh off his world-record run two weeks ago, Brazil’s Alison dos Santos won the 400m hurdles in 45.98 seconds to beat rivals Rai Benjamin of the U.S. (46.40) and former record-holder Karsten Warholm of Norway (46.78). Jasmine Jones of the U.S. won the women’s event in 52.45.
• Djamel Sedjati of Algeria surged past Canada’s 2023 world champion Marco Arop over the final few steps to win the men’s 800m in 1:41.91. Arop crossed in 1:42.28, while Kenya’s Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi was third (1:42.44).
• Rumesh Pathirage of Sri Lanka threw 91.09m to win the men’s javelin by almost five metres, while Saly Sarr of Senegal won the women’s triple jump with a leap of 15.06m.
• Likina Amebaw of Ethiopia pulled away to win a tactical women’s 5,000m in 14:30.36.
• The inaugural Ultimate Championship featured a prize pot of $10 million, the richest ever in the sport. Over 60,000 fans attended over the three sold-out days in Budapest.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Joe Bavier and Toby Davis)
