2025 World Championships Daily Dispatch #2: The World's Fastest

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The simplest distillation of a track race comes down to one question: who’s the fastest?

There might be hurdles, or many laps, or tactical prowess involved in other events, but in the 100-meter race, it’s simply a battle of physical excellence and mental sharpness as the world’s greatest athletes hone their 10-second performance with all the precision and panache of a Renaissance artist or nuclear physicist.

This year’s maestros of track and field’s most prominent event were Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Oblique Seville, continuing the overall trend of American and Jamaican dominance (and rivalry) over the short sprints. Jefferson-Wooden, the bronze medalist in Paris last summer, continued to show the world that she’d leveled up in 2025, dispatching Olympic champ Julien Alfred, World champ Sha’Carri Richardson, and an Avengers-level field of superstars to take the win in a championship record of 10.61, becoming the fourth fastest woman ever in the process.

Watching Jefferson-Wooden execute a 100-meter race is truly a masterpiece: while some sprinters are excellent starters and others ramp up to blistering speed, the 24-year-old American is seemingly good at every single element of the sprints, her running form looking like something out of a textbook. No wonder she hasn’t lost a single race all year.

Seville bounced back from a poor start in his first round of racing to win his first World medal in personal best form and take down World/Olympic champ Noah Lyles and world leader Kishane Thompson in the process. An American or Jamaican man has won every single World 100m final going back to 2003, but the fact that any given week a different athlete can come out on top makes the event fascinating.

This year, the 10,000m final was hardly a battle of the fastest — at least not for the first 9,000 meters or so. The pace crawled along for much of the early running in the hot, humid weather, opening the door for Jimmy Gressier to unleash a lethal kick and come away with his first-ever medal in a pedestrian 28:55.77. But hey, it still counts as a win. The women’s 1500m semifinals were similarly tactical — so bunched up, in fact, that several bodies hit the ground as the close quarters led to tripping and pushing. But Faith Kipyegon and most of the major medal contenders, including Americans Nikki Hiltz and Sinclaire Johnson, made it through unscathed.

On the infield, Tara Davis-Woodhall and Valarie Allman didn’t let heavy-favorite status get to their heads, as the American long jumper and discus thrower both picked up their first World golds. Neither Davis-Woodhall or Allman has lost a competition since 2023, but for Allman it was surely a little extra satisfying given that she took bronze and silver at the last two Worlds and finally got to the first step of the podium outside the Olympics.

The men’s marathon was also a crazy, unpredictable affair with a huge pack of a dozen men close together with under two miles to go and a literal photo finish between Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania and Amanal Petros of Germany, who were both credited with a 2:09:48. Ultimately Simbu pulled out the win and delivered his country’s first-ever gold medal at a World Championship, as Syracuse cross-country alum Ilias Alouani of Italy took bronze and Clayton Young took top American honors in ninth.

A bunch of medals have been handed out already, but there’s plenty more championships to come. Stay caught up with all the action with our reaction show live from Tokyo, as well as daily Good Morning (or evening, depending on your time zone) Track and Field with Eric Jenkins and Aisha Praught-Leer. You can also catch up with all our athlete interviews over on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel, and subscribe to make sure you don’t miss any of the action.

Race Of The Day: Men’s 100m

Heading into the World Championships, all eyes were on the two 100m medalists from Paris as they headed toward Tokyo on a collision course. And Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson continued another exciting chapter of their rivalry, both winning their first two rounds of racing before meeting up in the final.

When the gun went off, Lyles stayed on Thompson’s shoulder for the first half of the race, usually a sign that the fast-finishing American would come out of the race with another gold. But Thompson is no slouch over the second half of the race as well, and this time he managed to hold off his rival and beat him head-to-head for the second time this season.

But wait — neither man landed on the top step of the podium. That honor would go to 24-year-old Oblique Seville, whose reputation prior to yesterday largely centered on two fourth-place World finishes and his ability to beat Lyles in the regular season but not in championships. Seville looked dreadful in the first round and phenomenal in the semi, so we weren’t sure what to expect when the final rolled around… and ultimately, he defied all previous expectations, dominating the field in the final 50 meters to claim his first medal, a World gold, in 9.77. That’s also a 0.04 second personal best and ties him for tenth on the all-time list.

Thompson and Lyles didn’t run poorly by any means — the Jamaican delivered a 1-2 finish for his team with a 9.82 run and the American got a 9.89 season’s best. Lyles probably also enjoyed beating another one of his prime rivals, U.S. champ Kenny Bednarek, who finished fourth in 9.92. But Seville was just too good this time, and when he put the pieces together, it turns out he’s the best in the world.

Athlete Of The Day: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

It’s not every day that the athlete who finished sixth in their final gets named athlete of the day… but Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce isn’t just any athlete.

The 38-year-old may not have added to her medal collection — not that she needs it, with 24 World/Olympic medals already on her shelf — but her impact on the event and the sport writ large was nevertheless on full display. The eternally-positive Jamaican wanted to end her professional career on her own terms after withdrawing from last summer’s Olympics, and that she did, qualifying for the 100m final in the same country as her first World Championship appearance 18 years earlier.

Fraser-Pryce’s legacy is more than solidified, but there was something extra gratifying about seeing her teammates finish 2-4-6 in the 100m final after being shut out of the medals the year before, with 21-year-old Tina Clayton assuming the de facto mantle of Next Great Jamaican Sprinter. As torches get passed and new stars begin to shine, SAFP isn’t just a role model for her countrywomen, either. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Julien Alfred are both 24 years old, hardly much older than Clayton, and as they enter the primes of their careers they’re surely hoping that their medal-winning years last half as long as Fraser-Pryce’s have.

SAFP’s week — and career — aren’t quite over yet with the 4×100m relays around the corner, but when she does ride off into the sunset and next year’s 100-meter finalists toe the line, they’ll all be standing in the “Pocket Rocket’s” gigantic shadow.

Photo Of The Day

There was a lot of pushing and shoving in the semifinals of the women’s 1500m, with Freweyni Hailu falling in the first heat but still making the final and Marta Zenoni (center right) picking up a DQ for contact in the second semi.

Social Moment Of The Day

Four-time Olympian Eilish McColgan points out the benefit of bringing all qualified athletes to a World Championships, a particular sticking point in the UK Athletics selection process. Lucky for Julia Paternain, she was able to make the most of her ranking spot to pick up a bronze medal for her country in her second-ever marathon.

What’s Coming Next

Today’s action will see Mondo Duplantis (pole vault) and Soufiane El Bakkali (steeplechase) looking to complete the “Tokyo-Tokyo sweep” — that is, winning all five major championships between the 2021 Olympics and now. Ryan Crouser is the only athlete to pull off the feat so far, but Duplantis and El Bakkali will enter their respective finals as the favorites.

We’ll see the start of the men’s 110m hurdles featuring World champ Grant Holloway entering as a bit of an unknown against world leader Cordell Tinch, and the end of the women’s 100m hurdles as Americans Masai Russell, Alaysha Johnson, and Grace Stark take on Jamaicans Ackera Nugent and Danielle Williams (plus world record holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria).

A brutal 1500m semifinal will take place for the men as a whole bunch of decorated middle-distance runners, including World champ Josh Kerr and Olympic champ Cole Hocker, will fight simply to get a place in the final. And we’ll get our first look at the “Big Three” of the men’s 400m hurdles as Rai Benjamin, Karsten Warholm, and Alison dos Santos open up their Tokyo campaigns. So pour yourself a cup of coffee if you’re in the U.S. and a glass of sake if you’re in Japan, and enjoy!

Until next time — Catch up on anything you may have missed on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel, Twitter, and Instagram and don’t forget to subscribe to the CITIUS MAG newsletter for more updates on the 2025 World Athletics Championships.