Sunday marked the beginning of a new era in top-level track and field, as Jamaica’s Oblique Seville and the USA’s Melissa Jefferson-Wooden stormed to World Championship gold medals in the 100m.
Fans in Tokyo were treated to two historic races in the space of just 20 minutes at day two of the World Athletics Championships, and it was 20 minutes which saw a changing of the guard in the 100m elite.
Seville clocked a PB of 9.77 to beat Kishane Thompson and Noah Lyles in the men’s final, becoming the first Jamaican world champion since Usain Bolt, who was watching on in the stands.
Just a few minutes earlier, Jefferson-Wooden had set a new Championship Record of 10.61, becoming the fourth-fastest woman in history.
It was an evening which established the two 24-year-olds as the new king and queen of the sprints, launching a new dynasty and fresh hopes of a world record in the near future.
Yet for anyone who had been following the Wanda Diamond League in 2025, the success of Seville and Jefferson-Wooden will have come as no surprise.
Both athletes enjoyed a brilliant second half of the season on athletics’ premier one-day circuit, staking their claim to the ultimate throne with some major scalps.
Jefferson-Wooden’s first Diamond League appearance of the season came on home soil at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, where she won a tense battle with Olympic champion Julien Alfred.
The young American held off a late surge from the St. Lucian to claim a statement victory in 10.75 and take her first ever Diamond League win.
She followed it up six weeks later with two back-to-back wins at the Diamond League meetings in Silesia and Brussels, claiming her first overseas victories on athletics’ most prestigious circuit.
After equalling Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s meeting record with a fabulous 10.66 in Silesia, Jefferson-Wooden hammered home the point with a sharp 10.76 at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels.
“I know that I’m in great shape and that it’s all about putting together the perfect race at the perfect time, when it matters the most, and that is at the World Championships in Tokyo,” she said in the Belgian capital.
Seville’s triumph in Tokyo also came off the back of a fantastic Diamond League campaign, which saw him turn heads with two victories over Olympic champion Noah Lyles.
The young Jamaican left Lyles panting in his wake as he raced to 9.86 at the London Athletics Meet in late July, inflicting a rare defeat on the American in what was a first 100m Diamond League race of the season for both men.
For Seville, too, it was a first ever Diamond League win and one which proved to be a sign of things to come.
As if to prove that his London victory was no fluke, the Jamaican delivered the goods once again at Athletissima Lausanne a few weeks later, defying heavy rain to clock a breathtaking 9.87 and once again defeat Lyles.
For both Seville and Jefferson-Wooden, it was those two Diamond League victories which confirmed their title-winning form in 2025 and put them in pole position ahead of Tokyo.
Once on the biggest stage, neither of them disappointed, delivering one of the most memorable 20 minutes of athletics in recent history.
