28/09/2025

theSun on Sunday SEPT 28, 2025

SPORTS 13

Seven star dazzlers in Tokyo

Duplantis and McLaughlin-Levrone light up world championships

ARMAND DUPLANTIS (Sweden, men’s pole vault) Duplantis electrified a packed crowd by setting the 14th world record of his career in an event he has re-defined. The US-born Swede, one of athletics’ genuine superstars, seems to be able to summon up world records at will – his lat est is 6.30 metres. “I felt the only way to leave Japan was to set the world record,” Duplantis said. His ecstatic celebrations with his com petitors, his parents and his girlfriend Desire Inglander, were also fun to watch. SYDNEY MCLAUGHLIN-LEVRONE (USA, women’s 400m) She came, she saw and she duly con quered a new event, nearly breaking a 40 year-old world record in a remarkable women’s 400m final. McLaughlin-Levrone already domi nates the one-lap hurdles event, so when the American fully turned her attention to the flat race, it was an exciting prospect. She did not disappoint, blasting to a time of 47.78sec, the second fastest in history and just behind the 47.60sec set by Marita Koch of the former East Germany in 1985. McLaughlin

he blasted to the men’s 100m gold in 9.77sec. In doing so, he ushered in a new era of men’s Jamaican sprinting, following in the footsteps of his now-retired mentor Usain Bolt, a delighted spectator in Tokyo. Guided by Bolt’s old coach Glen Mills, Seville staked a claim as the coming man in the fiercely competitive sprint world. “Track and field is both mental and physical. But to be honest, I think I have mastered the mental part of it. Now, more gold medals!” he said. JIMMY GRESSIER (France, men’s 10,000m and 5,000m) Gressier was an unlikely winner of the 10,000m, an event normally dominated by athletes from east Africa or of African ori gin. In lively post-race interviews, the Frenchman thanked the anti-doping authorities for “creating a level playing field”, and promised to buy his girlfriend a car with his prize money. He added a 5,000m bronze medal on the final night. BEATRICE CHEBET (Kenya, women’s 5,000m and 10,000m) Chebet produced a blistering burst of speed to win the women’s 5,000m and deny her fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, the 1,500m winner, a double gold. In the process, Chebet earned a memorable double herself, having also won the 10,000m. The gold medals at these champion ships – Kenya also took the men’s and women’s 800m titles, the women’s mara thon and the women’s steeplechase – were a much-needed tonic for the east African running powerhouse which is bat tling against a raft of doping cases, most notably one involving the women’s mara thon world record holder, Ruth Chepngetich. GEORDIE BEAMISH (New Zealand, men’s 3,000m steeplechase) Beamish took a tumble in the heats of the steeplechase but jumped up and still qualified. Perhaps it was written in the stars that he would produce a last-gasp spurt to edge defending champion Soufiane El Bakkali for gold in the final. His surprise win was followed a day later by Olympic champion Hamish Kerr’s high jump victory, making it a rare two golds for New Zealand. AFP In 2019 she was holding Zyon in her arms parading round the stadium in Doha having won another 100m world title. While her family shared her and husband Jason’s delight they – like everyone else – had been kept in the dark about her pregnancy. She says being a mother made her feel reborn as an athlete. “My son is my biggest motivation. I think competing after I had my son, for women, it teaches us that our dreams don’t end when we become mothers. “If anything, they add value to our dreams and our goals, what we are chasing.” – AFP

have her eyes fixed on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. OBLIQUE SEVILLE (Jamaica, men’s 100m) The 24-year-old Jamaican has long promised great things but in Tokyo he emphatically delivered, leaving teammate Kishane Thompson and Olympic cham pion Noah Lyles with the minor medals as

relay with the USA quartet on Sunday added to a commanding 100m perform ance that left Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred for dead. Jefferson-Wooden, 24, became the fourth fastest 100m performer in history with a time of 10.61sec. She was even more comfortable in the longer sprint and will now

Levrone was run ning on a wet Tokyo track. It is hoped that in different conditions, the American can one day erase a record that is widely viewed with suspi cion because of East Germany’s state-sponsored doping pro gramme, although Koch never tested positive. MELISSA JEFFER SON-WOODEN (USA, women’s 100m and 200m, 4x100m relay) The American became just the sec ond woman to win a sprint treble at a world championships since Jamaican legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 2013.

Sweden’s Armand Duplantis (left) and Sydney McLaughlin Levrone. – REUTERSPIC

Victory in the 4x100m

Fraser-Pryce, Jamaica’s sprint warrior queen

I’ve told her, her longevity showed that I could have done it,” Bolt said in Tokyo. The diminutive Fraser-Pryce, nicknamed “The Pocket Rocket”, which is also the name of her foundation, grew up in a crime-ridden neighbourhood of Kingston. Those modest beginnings meant she did not showboat as she collected a total of 26 Olympic and world medals, including three Olympic golds and 10 world titles. She is the third-fastest woman of all time in the 100m with 10.60sec. For Fraser-Pryce, her career has been much more about showing how much women can achieve.

extraordinary Jamaican men and women sprinters. Just as Usain Bolt led the men – former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell and 2011 100m zzzworld champion Yohan Blake – so Fraser-Pryce did with Elaine Thompson Herah and the older Veronica Campbell Brown. Bolt and Fraser-Pryce are very different characters, the former playing to the crowd while Fraser-Pryce is more reserved, her variety of hair colouring – she owns a haircare company – often the furthest she would push it. “She’s been great for sports in general and

SHELLY-ANN FRASER-PRYCE bowed out as arguably the greatest woman sprinter of all time on Sept 21 and fittingly she departed with yet another medal. The 38-year-old Jamaican can leave with her head held high after a silver in the women’s 4x100 metres relay on the final night of the world championships in Tokyo. “The warrior”, as she likes to refer to herself, has said she would like her legacy to be “the totality of who I am: the mom, the athlete, the entrepreneur, the philanthropist”. Fraser-Pryce brings down the curtain on a career at the top spanning almost two decades, the last of a generation of