BUDAPEST, Hungary – Danielle Williams secured her second World sprint hurdles title nearly a decade after she captured her first, as she and Antonio Watson delivered upsets to earn gold for Jamaica on day six of the World Athletics Championships on Thursday.
Jamaican Antonio Watson celebrates gold in the men’s 400 metres final.The 30-year-old, a gold medalist at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, sped to a season-best 12.43 seconds, to upset Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, who was forced into second in time of 12.44.
American Kendra Harrison ran 12.46 to hang on for bronze but there was disappointment for the two other Caribbean athletes in the race – Bahamian Devynne Charlton missing out with 12.52 to finish fourth and Jamaican Ackera Nugent clocking 12.61 for fifth.
Williams was away quickly in lane two with Charlton chasing from lane six and Harrison also threatening from lane four.
Charlton faded over the last 40 meters, however, while Harrison remained on Williams’s heels, Camacho-Quinn surging late out of lane seven to create a close finish.
“I’m happy. [There] couldn’t be a better finish that I could ask for,” said Williams, who has been plagued with injury in recent years.
“God already knew this result. I just asked that his will be done and that my performance glorified him. I’m so happy.
“My mindset coming into today was just to execute, run a complete race. All season long I have not run a complete race – if I got the start, I didn’t get the finish. If I got the finish, I didn’t get the start so I just wanted to put together a complete race today.
“And coming out here I knew that if I did that, I could win. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I knew I could win and I knew it was going to come down to the finish line so I was just all grit and competing hard.”
Watson, meanwhile, clocked 44.22 seconds to win the men’s 400 meters final, finishing ahead of Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith (44.31) and American Quincy Hall (44.37).
Hudson-Smith installed himself on the backstretch with Grenada’s Kirani James also in contention, the pair leading the field off the final turn, with Watson in fourth and trying to stave off a challenge from American Vernon Norwood on his outside.
However, Watson sprinted through the last 20 meters in lane seven to catch the fading Hudson-Smith and clinch his first global title.
“Words cannot explain at the moment, I am feeling really good. Everything has not soaked in as yet but at this point I’m just feeling good,” Watson said.
“I just came out here to do my best, just to run my own race and put my best foot forward and it got me the gold so I’m really proud.
“I didn’t have a specific strategy. I just came out here to run my own race and do my best. I’m just feeling excited. It’s just a great moment.”
Rushell Clayton secured Jamaica their third medal when she finished with bronze in the women’s 400 meters hurdles in a personal-best 52.81.
Femke Bol of the Netherlands claimed gold in 51.70 while American Shamier Little clocked a season-best 52.80 for silver.
“I had to run super fast. I had to run the fastest I’ve run in my entire life,” said the 30-year-old Clayton, who finished sixth in Eugene last year.
“I was executing and my coach is usually like ‘if you execute, you’ll get this medal’ so I stayed true to the execution.
“I didn’t know exactly where I was in the race, I just knew I was running for my life.”
Jamaica also captured medals in the field where Wayne Pinnock measured 8.50 meters for silver and Tajay Gayle leapt a season-best 8.27 for bronze in the men’s long jump, behind gold medal winner Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece (8.52).
Reigning women’s 200 meters champion, Shericka Jackson, surged into Friday’s final when she dismissed American star Sha’Carri Richardson to win her semi-final in 22 seconds flat.
Richardson, who upset Jackson in the 100m final earlier in the week, was second in 22.20 to also advance to the final.
Impressive 22-year-old St Lucian Julien Alfred reached her second final of the meet by capturing semi-final two in 22.17, followed home in third by Bahamian Anthonique Strachan who clocked 22.30.
The Caribbean will be without a representative in the men’s final after Andrew Hudson and Rasheed Dwyer of Jamaica failed to advance from the semi-finals.
