Athletics- Jefferson-Wooden, Bednarek complete Ultimate Championship sprint doubles


Athletics - 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championships - National Athletics Centre, Budapest, Hungary - September 13, 2026 Brazil's Alison dos Santos in action during the Men's 400m Hurdles final REUTERS/Marton Monus

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)

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

Others Also Read