World c’ships gold rush for Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson and Faith Kipyegon

BUDAPEST – Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, the two faces of the World Athletics Championships, won their third and second golds respectively by anchoring the United States to 4x100m relay triumphs in Budapest on Saturday.

On an enthralling night’s action, Armand Duplantis and Faith Kipyegon also rubber-stamped their authority.

Charismatic Swede Duplantis retained his pole vault title, although he fell short of bettering his own world record, while Kenyan Kipyegon became the first woman to achieve the 1,500-5,000m double, when she won the latter.

It was a night of firsts for Canada, who had earlier in the championships won the men’s and women’s hammer titles.

Marco Arop and Pierce LePage became the first Canadians to win the men’s 800m title and decathlon respectively, and Olympic champion Damian Warner gilded the lily in the decathlon, taking silver.

Yet another medal came Canada’s way with Sarah Mitton’s women’s shot put silver.

Lyles and Richardson, though, stole the show.

The former held up three fingers as he raced across the line, a big grin spread across his face as he added relay gold to his 100-200m double.

In achieving the double, he became the fifth man to do so and with the treble he is the first since Usain Bolt in 2015 to sweep the lot. Bolt, however, did it three times.

“This is the third gold for me here,” said 26-year-old Lyles.

“It’s sensational, amazing. You can’t do better. It’s out of control. I love Team USA because everybody is coming here thinking ‘I’m going to win’. We’re able to put that into a team effort and then we’re unstoppable.”

The team of Lyles, Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley and Brandon Carnes won in 37.38, ahead of Olympic champions Italy (37.62) and Jamaica (37.76).

Richardson and Gabby Thomas were added to the women’s team alongside Tamari Davis and Twanisha Terry and the foursome were superb in running a championship record of 41.03.

Jamaica took silver in 41.21 while Britain claimed bronze with 41.97.

“Dreams like this come true,” said Richardson of her relay gold.

“I’m just glad I was able to be here for my first world championship and do the things I’ve been working on all season.”

She had also won the 100m earlier.

Duplantis enjoyed a pretty routine defence of his title, saying: “I’m really happy about all these consecutive golds.

“I don’t know where this one ranks but I’m happy to keep winning.”

The Swede finished with a best vault of 6.10m – his world record stands at 6.22m.

Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines took silver with 6.00m, while Australian Kurtis Marschall and American Chris Nilsen shared bronze (5.95m).

Kipyegon underlined her status as one of the all-time greats of distance running, the 29-year-old once again in these championships outclassing 5,000m Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.

“I have been patient waiting to be able to break world records and win double golds. But my dream just came true, it is amazing,” she said.

The Canadians, meanwhile, were in a joyous mood.

LePage turned silver in 2022 into gold with a fabulous performance on the second day of the decathlon, even more so as he had a problematic hamstring.

“I went all in from this morning and it makes me really proud,” said the 27-year-old.

“It is nice to share this podium with him (Warner).

“This morning I pulled my hamstring before the hurdles. But it is decathlon, we are used to a lot of injuries, you get through it.”

Arop produced a masterful run in the 800m, calmly staying at the back of the field until pushing the button down the back straight. The 24-year-old was never in trouble once he hit the front.

“Now it’s going to be hard to beat a gold medal,” said Sudan-born Arop, who won bronze in 2022.

“I’m going to work twice as hard now to make sure I stay on top.” AFP, REUTERS