World Champs Women’s 100 — Jefferson-Wooden Roars To MR

Twice a Worlds relay gold medalist, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden cut 0.04 from the meet record in taking individual gold this time. (TAKASHI ITO/AGENCE SHOT)

THE CROWNING OF a new sprint queen seemed inevitable. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden had dominated her opponents and the clock all season. Prior to the start, she stood in lane 4 closer to the blocks than the rest, staring at the line 100m away, unflinching and focused.

Farther back stood the assembled sprint royalty, including lane 8’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who had won this title a record 5 times, and defending champion Sha’Carri Richardson in lane 2. In 5 stood Olympic champion Julien Alfred. The only one who had not won major senior hardware was Jamaican Tina Clayton in lane 6; she was the field’s youngest at 21, a former World Junior champion.

Time, however, is an unforgiving opponent, and this is Jefferson-Wooden’s time. Her opponents had all seen what the 24-year-old Olympic bronze medalist had done in her semi less than 2 hours earlier. She flew to a 10.73. No one else had run faster than 10.90.

And in the final no one started better. In the early meters Jefferson-Wooden had Jackson and Alfred for company but by halfway Clayton had emerged as her closest challenger. Not that it was even close to close. Midway the American shifted into her top speed phase, an otherworldly zone that none of her opponents could hope to enter.

By the finish, she had more than a full stride on Clayton. Her 10.61 (with a 0.3 wind) shattered the 10.65 championship record that Richardson had set in Budapest. She looked up at the results board, almost in disbelief, then celebrated.

Clayton ran her best ever, a 10.76 for silver, and Alfred finished off the podium with her 10.84. Next came Jackson at 10.88 and Richardson with a season best 10.94. In 6th, in what may be the final individual race of her life, Fraser-Pryce ran 11.03.

Jefferson-Wooden’s margin of 0.15 was the biggest since SAFP’s Moscow win in ’13. “I have been dreaming of this moment,” she said. “Instead of putting the pressure on myself and taking it as something overwhelming, I was just embracing it.

“It is literally everything I have been working on the whole year around. Coming out with the gold medal and a championship record, it’s a great start to my second World Championships. When the gun went off, I just thought, ‘Come on, get out strong!’ The rest of the race went like a blink of an eye.”

Said Clayton, “The time was not in my mind — it was all about the performance.”

Alfred said she pulled her hamstring in the final and raised doubts about the 200. One with no doubt about the longer race is Jefferson-Wooden, who admitted, “I am excited about the 200m now.”

WOMEN’S 100 RESULTS

(September 14; wind +0.3)

1. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (US) 10.61 PR (WL)

(=3, =3 W) (1, 1 A—we don’t recognize ratified AR);

2. Tina Clayton (Jam) 10.76 PR;

3. Julien Alfred (StL) 10.84;

4. Shericka Jackson (Jam) 10.88;

5. Sha’Carri Richardson (US) 10.94;

6. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jam) 11.03;

7. Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith (CI) 11.04;

8. Dina Asher-Smith (GB) 11.08.

(lanes: 2. Richardson; 3. Jackson; 4. Jefferson-Wooden; 5. Alfred; 6. Clayton; 7. Ta Lou-Smith; 8. Fraser-Pryce; 9. Asher-Smith)

(reaction times: 0.169 Alfred, 0.173 Jefferson-Wooden, 0.178 Richardson, 0.180 Jackson, 0.186 Asher-Smith, 0.195 Fraser-Pryce, 0.202 Ta Lou-Smith, 0.203 Clayton)

HEATS (September 13)

I(-0.9)–1. Jefferson-Wooden 10.99; 2. Zoe Hobbs (NZ) 11.16; 3. Géraldine Frey (Swi) 11.25; 4. Sade McCreath (Can) 11.41; 5. Lisa Mayer (Ger) 11.45; 6. Bree Rizzo (Aus) 11.45; 7. Julia Henriksson (Swe) 11.49; 8. Valentina Meredova (Tkm) 12.13; 9. Lujain Ibrahim Alhumaid (Sau) 12.68.

II(-0.4)–1. Clayton 11.01; 2. Asher-Smith 11.07; 3. Ewa Swoboda (Pol) 11.18; 4. Rani Rosius (Bel) 11.25; 5. Rosemary Chukwuma (Ngr) 11.27; 6. Lorène Dorcas Bazolo (Por) 11.34; 7. Karolína Maňasová (CzR) 11.37; 8. Fayza Issaka Abdou Kerim (Tog) 12.00; 9. Estelle Short (COK) 12.55.

III(-0.8)–1. Richardson 11.03; 2. Jackson 11.04; 3. Torrie Lewis (Aus) 11.08 NR; 4. Gina Lückenkemper (Ger) 11.12; 5. Anthaya Charlton (Bah) 11.18; 6. Herverge Kole Etame (Cam) 11.55; 7. Pierrick-Linda Moulin (Gab) 11.58; 8. Natacha Ngoye (Con) 11.88.

IV(0.0)–1. Alfred 10.93; 2. Salomé Kora (Swi) 11.23; 3. Audrey Leduc (Can) 11.26; 4. Poliníki Emmanouilídou (Gre) 11.36; 5. Camille Rutherford (Bah) 11.40; 6. Maboundou Koné (CI) 11.42; 7. Marlet Ospino (Col) 11.63; 8. Nyasha Harris (Blz) 12.25; 9. Chloe David (Van) 12.40 PR.

V(0.5)–1. Daryll Neita (GB) 10.94; 2. TeeTee Terry (US) 11.06; 3. Thelma Davies (Lbr) 11.12; 4. Boglárka Takács (Hun) 11.12; 5. Ana Carolina Azevedo (Bra) 11.24; 6. Xiaojing Liang (Chn) 11.29; 7. Ella Connolly (Aus) 11.43; 8. Alessandra Gasparelli (SMa) 11.78.

VI(-0.1)–1. Zaynab Dosso (Ita) 11.10; 2. Amy Hunt (GB) 11.13; 3. Kayla White (US) 11.16; 4. Leah Bertrand (Tri) 11.29; 5. Destiny Smith-Barnett (Lbr) 11.33; 6. Viktória Forster (Svk) 11.43; 7. Edina Ngandula (Zam) 11.59 PR; 8. Rori Lowe (Hon) 11.93; 9. Gorete Semedo (STP) 11.98.

VII(-0.4)–1. Ta Lou-Smith 11.05; 2. Fraser-Pryce 11.09; 3. Liranyi Alonso (DR) 11.26; 4. Patrizia van der Weken (Lux) 11.29; 5. Sina Mayer (Ger) 11.41; 6. Gladymar Torres (PR) 11.52; 7. Tri-Tania Lowe (AIA) 11.59; 8. María Ignacia Montt (Chl) 11.68.

SEMIS (September 14)

I(-0.3)–1. Ta Lou-Smith 10.94; 2. Jackson 10.97; 3. Richardson 11.00; 4. Neita 11.06; 5. Alonso 11.16; 6. White 11.20; 7. Kora 11.30; 8. Takács 11.32.

II(0.1)–1. Alfred 10.93; 2. Fraser-Pryce 11.00; 3. Hunt 11.05; 4. Terry 11.07; 5. Hobbs 11.09; 6. Charlton 11.14; 7. Frey 11.34; 8. Swoboda 11.36.

III(0.2)–1. Jefferson-Wooden 10.73; 2. Clayton 10.90; 3. Asher-Smith 11.02; 4. Lückenkemper 11.11; 5. Lewis 11.14; 6. Dosso 11.22; 7. Davies 11.24; 8. Leduc 11.34.

Jeff Hollobaugh is a writer and stat geek who has been associated with T&FN in various capacities since 1987. He is the author of How To Race The Mile. He lives in Michigan where he can often be found announcing track meets in bad weather.

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