World Athletics Ultimate Championships: Werro, Bednarek, Jefferson-Wooden win

BUDAPEST: Audrey Werro underlined her status as the queen of the 800m with a dominant victory at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Saturday night as Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Kenny Bednarek ensured American golds in two electric 100m races.

Switzerland’s Werro led from gun to tape to outstrip rivals Keely Hodgkinson, Britain’s Olympic champion, and Femke Broeders-Bol, the Dutch former two-time world 400m hurdles champion, with a timing of 1:55.88.

The 22-year-old, who was crowned continental champion at last month’s European championships in Birmingham and is unbeaten this season, pulled away in the home straight, Hodgkinson overtaking Broeders-Bol for second.

A battle between two true sprint heavyweights in the women’s 100m saw world champion Jefferson-Wooden snatch victory from St Lucia’s Olympic champion Julien Alfred.

Jefferson-Wooden pulled away in style in the final 50 metres to time an electric 10.62sec for victory — the joint seventh ever run and just one-hundredth off her winning time at last year’s world championships in Tokyo.

Minutes later, with Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt an interested onlooker, Bednarek made sure that he, too, would be leaving Hungary with a winner’s cheque worth $150,000 after he held off Jamaica’s world champion Oblique Seville for victory in 9.85sec.

Another American, Ronnie Baker, rounded out the podium for a second medal of the championship after winning gold as part of the US 4x100m mixed relay team. Agencies

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