Achieving a time of 9.77 seconds, the 24-year-old Jamaican athlete wins his first senior world title. Thompson secures silver in 9.82 seconds, while Lyles claims bronze in 9.89 seconds.
Oblique Seville secured the men’s 100m championship title at the Tokyo 25 World Athletics Championships on Sunday, September 14, following an electrifying performance.
In the presence of Usain Bolt, Seville, 24, achieved a milestone as Jamaica’s first world champion over the distance since Bolt’s victory in 2015.
“I feel really amazing and excited that the gold is coming home to Jamaica,” an excited Seville said after the race. “I have proved that I am a true competitor, that I have the determination of a champion”.
“But still, I was panicking, I didn’t know what was going on throughout the semi-final. Finishing strong in the last 30 to 40 metres was something I was struggling with the whole season, I just didn’t recognise it. Now I have perfected it, and I was confident that if I could do it in the final, I would win. I knew if I had a strong finish, the others will not catch me.”
The period preceding the final was marked by significant attention focused on the emerging rivalry between Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson, the respective gold and silver medal winners at Paris 2024.
Nevertheless, on a hot and humid evening in Tokyo, Seville surprised his rivals and the majority of the stadium, achieving a personal best time of 9.77 seconds to claim his first major international championship gold and the title of “world’s fastest man”.
Thompson secured the silver medal with a time of 9.82 seconds, while Lyles earned the bronze medal with a time of 9.89 seconds.
A dramatic incident unfolded before the race began, as Botswana’s Olympic 200m champion, Letsile Tebogo, was disqualified for jumping the gun.
The false start elicited gasps from the nearly 60,000-strong crowd, who had waited in silence for the starter’s gun to fire. But when the race did finally begin, it didn’t disappoint.
Thompson and Lyles, who were drawn in adjacent lanes, battled for position on the track, with the Jamaican appearing to have secured the gold medal that eluded him last year in Paris.
However, Seville had other plans, surging to the front in the final metres to be crowned world champion.
Kanyinsola Ajayi may not have secured a medal, but his achievement today is highly significant.
By earning Nigeria a lane in a highly competitive 100m final and finishing sixth in a global championship, while also celebrating his 21st birthday, he deserves recognition, as this marks the beginning of his promising career, with a top-three finish likely in the near future.
