BUDAPEST: Audrey Werro underlined her status as the queen of the 800m with a dominant victory at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Saturday 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 BroedersBol, the Dutch former twotime world 400m hurdles champion,inimin55.88sec.
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.
‘It is really crazy but, at the same time, it is something I have worked for and now I am getting the result,’ Werro said of her winning streak.
A battle between two true sprint heavyweights in the women’s 100m saw world champion JeffersonWooden 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 worldchampionships in Tokyo.
‘When I got into the blocks today, I just told myself that this is my moment,’ said JeffersonWooden. ‘I worked so hard to be where I am today, I didn’t want the moment to be too big, I just had to focus on myself, and everything would work out well.
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 secondmedal of the championship after winning gold as part of the US 4x100m mixedrelay team on Friday.
‘This one was for the history books,’ saidBednarek. ‘Everything is a little bit more exciting than at the world championships but also this event brought a bit more pressure on me as there is a lot on the line.
There were six other finals on the second of the inaugural three-day season-ending championship.
Arguably the performance of the night came from Botswana’s Busang Collen Kebinatshipi.
With six Diamond League wins from six races to his name this season, he performed his trademark press-up celebrations after setting a new national record of 43.39see to win the men’s 400m.
The time sent the 22-year-old world cham-pion past American Quincy Hall to stand-alone fifth on the all-time list for the onelap race.
AmericanRaiBenjamin, the Olympic and world 400m hurdles champion who switched his focus to the 400m flat for 2026, was second with 44.15sec.
Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic ground down her rivals to continue her unbeaten season streak in the women’s 400m, winning in 49.07sec.
And Diamond League champion Klaudia Kazimierska of Poland held off Britain’s world indoor champion Georgia Hunter Bell to take the honours in the 1,500m in 3:57.55.
The striking black in-field played host to the women’s javelin, Japan’s Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi coached by men’s world record holder Jan zelezny winning with a best of 68.92m.
Pole vaulter Hana Moll arrived in Budapest on a three-meeting winning streak but was undone by US team-mate and world silver medallist Sandi Morris, who won on countback after both cleared 4.90m.
Launching themselves into pink sand, Greece’s double Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou edged Bulgaria’s Bozhidar Saraboyukov by lem for victory in the men’s long jump with a best of 8.35m.-AFP