Kerley wins world 100m gold

AFP

Eugene, July 18 : American Fred Kerley led a US clean sweep as he stormed to victory in the men's 100m at the World Championships in Oregon on Saturday.

Kerley, in lane four, was down on Marvin Bracy for 95 metres of the tight race but managed to out dip his teammate for victory in 9.86 seconds at Eugene's Hayward Field.

Bracy took silver in 9.88sec, and Trayvon Bromell claimed bronze in the same time for a third-ever 100m world championship clean sweep for the United States after 1983 and 1991.

The fourth of the strong US quartet, Christian Coleman, the reigning world champion from Doha in 2019 who was banned from the Tokyo Olympics for missing three doping tests, finished sixth (10.01) despite an electric start.

The last US clean sweep featured Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell, something not lost on the modest Kerley or silver medallist Bracy.

"It's amazing to be among the great, they did it in 1991, we did in 2022," he said.

It was far from plain sailing for the in-form Kerley, who set out his stall with a heat-winning 9.79sec on Friday, as all the sprinters got off to a good start.

Bracy and Coleman looked like they might deprive Kerley of gold many had predicted he would win.

But they hadn't counted on his savage finishing skills, the former 400m runner showing all his strength at the line. Bromell also left it late to sneak onto the podium from lane eight.

As the crowd realised it was a US clean sweep, chants of "U-S-A" rang out and flags were brandished.

Gidey upstages Hassan

Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey upstaged Dutch star Sifan Hassan to win the women's 10,000m at the World Championships in Oregon on Saturday. All eyes in the 10,000m were on Hassan, who produced a stunning 1500m-10,000m double at the 2019 world championships in Doha before winning 5000m and 10,000m gold and 1500m bronze at last year’s Olympics in Tokyo.

But the Ethiopian-born Dutch runner left herself with too much do with 200 metres to go and world record holder Gidey held her nerve for an impressive win.

Kenya's Hellen Obiri and teammate Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi claimed silver and bronze, Hassan finishing just off the pace in fourth.

In the men’s hammer throw, it was business as usual as Poland's Pawel Fajdek claimed his fifth world title, stretching his remarkable record with a winning throw of 81.98 metres on this third effort.