Jamaica’s Danielle Williams finally raced to world gold in the 100 metres hurdles once again, winning by the narrowest margin eight years after first climbing the global medal podium.
The 30-year-old, who won gold in 2015 and bronze in 2019, edged Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico by one hundredth of a second to win in 12.43 on Thursday.
“I knew it was going to be tough. I came out here knowing that I could win but I would have to give everything I had.
“I still don’t believe I won against such a stellar field. I’ve been racing these ladies all year and they have been kicking me left, right and centre. But I had such confidence in my training and my abilities that I never stopped believing”,Williams said .
Camacho-Quinn had to settle for silver in 12.44.
“I’m not upset at all.I can be grateful with that silver. After I won a bronze at the last world championships now I have a silver.
“If I add my Olympic gold medal I have the whole collection to be proud of. This final was packed with talents… so I don’t have any bitter feelings”,Camacho Quinn said.
American Kendra Harrison, who posted a world-leading time of 12.24 in the heats, took bronze in 12.46, keeping Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, who was fourth in 12.52, off the podium.
Less than a tenth of a second separated the top four hurdlers, and it was difficult to discern even from the photo finish any difference between Williams, who ran out of lane two, and Camacho-Quinn, who was in lane seven.
The two peered up at the scoreboard hopefully before Williams erupted with joy.
“The finish is usually my problem but I spoke to my sister (on Wednesday) and she said I need to make sure to race over all the hurdles because I wasn’t going flat out through all of them,” Williams said.
“Today I was determined to take it all the way.
“When I won in 2015 (in Beijing) it was unbelievable. But this took a lot of hard work, a lot of years of toil and injuries and losing my confidence and battling to get back to this stage.
“It’s awesome, Jamaica is a proud country and we love to win. I love to win.”,she said.
Nigeria’s world record holder Tobi Amusan, who arrived in Budapest amid controversy, was sixth.
The 26-year-old, who set the world record of 12.12 in the semi-finals last year and then won gold, had a provisional anti- doping suspension lifted two days before the worlds began.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) provisionally suspended Amusan last month due to three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period, but the decision was overturned by the AIU’s independent disciplinary tribunal panel only a few hours to the kick-off of the sports meet.
Meanwhile, the AIU announced that it could still appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It is believed that Tobi Amusan buckled under all the unprecedented pressure which was made worse by unrelenting media inquisition of Amusan.
Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan failed to defend her World Athletics Championship title after finishing sixth in the final of the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Thursday.
The Nigerian queen of track had in 2022 at theWorld Championship in Eugene, USA, came first with a 12.40 (African record) before setting a new world record of 12.12 to smash the 12.20 world record set by Kendra Harrison in 2016.
