Melissa Jefferson-Wooden wins the 100m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship (© Getty Images)
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden stormed to the joint seventh-fastest 100m of all time – 10.62 (-0.2m/s) – to win an epic clash with Julien Alfred at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26 on Saturday (12).
Jefferson-Wooden, who won 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles at last year’s World Championships, added the inaugural Ultimate crown to her honours, holding off Olympic champion Alfred and the fast-finishing 2023 world champion Sha'Carri Richardson.
Alfred secured the runner-up spot in 10.74, while Richardson was third in 10.76 on her return to the stadium in which she won her world title three years ago.
Prior to the new championship, Jefferson-Wooden had described running 10.61 at the World Championships in Tokyo as her “ultimate performance”. The US 25-year-old was just one hundredth of a second off that mark – a mark that places her fourth on the world all-time list – in Budapest as she ran the fastest time in the world this year.
Jefferson-Wooden and Alfred lined up side by side in the blocks – Saint Lucia’s Alfred in lane five, Jefferson-Wooden in lane four and Jamaica’s world silver medallist Tina Clayton next to her in lane three.
Clayton, fresh off her first Diamond League title win in Brussels, started fast but so did Jefferson-Wooden.
The US sprint star edged ahead and then Alfred passed Clayton, too. USA’s Richardson, next to Alfred in lane six, was also in hot pursuit and she moved into third place, pipping Jamaica’s Jonielle Smith and Clayton who both clocked 10.94 and were separated by one thousandth of a second.
Jefferson-Wooden has now broken 10.70 a total of four times and she owns three of the five fastest performances of the year.
The semifinals earlier in the evening provided a taste of what was to come. Alfred and Jefferson-Wooden both won their races in 10.73 – Alfred easing as she reached the finish line well clear and Jefferson-Wooden holding off Richardson, who was 0.02 behind. Those performances by Alfred and Jefferson-Wooden were separated by just two thousandths of a second, Alfred leading the first round by the narrowest of margins.
"This feels amazing. I crossed the line with a smile on my face because only I know all the things I have done to get to this moment," said Jefferson-Wooden. "When I got into the blocks today, I just told myself that this is my moment."
She will return to the track for the 200m on Sunday. "If I could win the double, it would just add to who I actually am," she said. "I am down to do things that haven't been done before, I am down for innovation and for challenging myself. Coming here, running four races in two days, it's something I haven't ever done before. I feel it is just a testament to what I am inspired to do."
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
