U.S. claims three more gold medals at world track championships
The United States showed off the speed and depth of its squad to win three gold medals on the final day of the world track championships.
U.S. runners won the men’s and women’s 1,600-meter relays, and U.S. women finished first and second in the 100-meter hurdles. The U.S. finished with 14 gold medals — its best result at a world championships for 12 years — in the last major global competition before next year’s Olympics in Tokyo.
Neither of the relays was a close contest, with the U.S. finishing more than a second clear of Jamaica in the men’s event and three seconds ahead of Poland in the women’s race.
Allyson Felix won a record 13th world championship gold as part of the relay team, though she only ran in the heats. The U.S. used Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney McLaughlin, the gold and silver medalists in the 400-meter hurdles, on the relay team.
Wrapped in the U.S. flag, Nia Ali celebrated a victory lap with her two young children after taking gold in the 100-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 12.34, beating fellow American Kendra Harrison. The 2015 world champion Danielle Williams took the bronze for Jamaica.
“I’m so excited for the upcoming years,” Harrison said. ”That was definitely a confidence booster and I’m so thankful.”
In one of the greatest long jump performances this century, Germany’s Malaika Mihambo added the world title to her 2018 European gold.
When facing elimination in the third round, Mihambo leaped 7.30 meters, the second-best jump by anyone since 2004.
U.S. long jumper Brittany Reese missed the cut for the finals by a centimeter and hurdler Brianna McNeal false-started in a heat and was disqualified Saturday at the world track and field championships.
The silver went to Ukraine’s Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk with 6.92, one centimeter ahead of Nigerian bronze medalist Ese Brume.
Kenya finished the championships with bragging rights over its East African distance running rival Ethiopia, winning five gold medals to Ethiopia’s two.
Timothy Cheruiyot dominated the 1,500 from start to finish for Kenya, breaking away from the pack early on and holding on to win the gold. That ended a run of silver medals for Cheruiyot, who was second at the 2017 world championships and the last two African championships.
The 2012 Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi took the silver for Algeria after winning a hectic pack sprint on the last stretch, with bronze for Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski.
Ethiopia came close to another gold in the 10,000 but Yomif Kejelcha ran out of gas on the final sprint as Joshua Cheptegei won gold for Uganda. Rhonex Kipruto added a bronze to Kenya’s tally.
The javelin throw went to Grenada’s two-time NCAA champion Anderson Peters after silver medalist Magnus Kirt of Estonia injured his shoulder and was unable to take his final throw. Johannes Vetter won bronze for Germany.
American Dalilah Muhammad broke her own world record in the 400-meter hurdles Friday night, circling the track in 52.16 seconds at the world championships.
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