Oblique Seville was crowned the first Jamaican world 100m champion since Usain Bolt after blazing to a personal-best 9.77 seconds in Tokyo.
World record holder Bolt, who last won gold at a world championships a decade ago, was the guest of honour at the Japan National Stadium and he was treated to a Jamaican one-two on the second night of the World Athletics Championships after Kishane Thompson claimed silver in 9.82secs.
Olympic and defending world champion Noah Lyles collected bronze in a season’s best of 9.89s, in a race that required a restart after the Olympic 200m champion, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, was disqualified for a false start.
“Through the years that I’ve been performing, injury is always the thing that stops me,” said Seville, 24, who trains with Bolt’s former coach Glen Mills.
“This year I showed my dominance straight through the season, and I said, ‘OK, this is my year, I’m going to take this one, and no-one is going to take it away from me’.”
Zharnel Hughes was the fastest Briton in the semi-final heats in 10.03s, but ultimately missed the finals by one place.
Congrats @obliqueseville & @iamkishane_ 1-2 for 🇯🇲🇯🇲🥇🥈 pic.twitter.com/qiP4adWqa9
— Usain St. Leo Bolt (@usainbolt) September 14, 2025
The top two from each 100m heat qualified for the final alongside the two fastest-remaining finishers.
Hughes, the 2023 bronze medallist, finished with the same time as Canada’s Jerome Blake. Both were two one hundredths of a second faster than Welsh record holder Jeremiah Azu, the 11th-fastest semi-finalist, while fellow Briton Romell Glave was 15th in 10.09s.
Dina Asher-Smith finished eighth in a women’s 100m final won by the United States’ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden in a championship record 10.61s.
Asher-Smith crossed the finish in 11.08s, Jamaica’s Tina Clayton took silver in a personal best of 10.76s and Olympic champion Julien Alfred collected bronze in 10.84s.
SHE'S OUT OF THIS WORLD 🔥@Melissajanae21 stuns the crowd the only she way she knew how, with a lightning fast 10.61 to become the women's 100m champion 🤯#WorldAthleticsChamps pic.twitter.com/oxtlJWXkfl
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) September 14, 2025
“I would have loved for my times to be a bit shinier over the 100m, but given the year that I’ve had and everything I’m so happy with just how I came into these championships,” Asher-Smith said.
“Obviously, I want a lot more in the 200m. But yeah, I’m happy to have made a global final in what has been a very difficult year for me.”
Jefferson-Wooden ran the fourth-fastest women’s 100m in history.
“This year has been nothing short of a dream,” she said. “To be able to put together the perfect race at the right time just means so much to me.”
Asher-Smith booked her place as one of the two-fastest remaining finishers, a spot Great Britain’s Daryll Neita, then Amy Hunt, also briefly occupied.
Neita was second-quickest of all the athletes from the women’s 100m heats, but came fourth in the first semi-final behind the United States’ defending champion Sha’Carri Richardson, who stumbled but still claimed the other non-automatic finals place.
Their heat required a restart after a potential false start for Richardson was reviewed, but the American was shown a green card.
“I’m angry,” said Neita. “What happened with my race? I don’t know what happened with the false start, I just knew it wasn’t me, I said that out there.”
Olympic 400m silver medallist Matt Hudson-Smith revealed he felt something in his hip after finishing fourth in his first-round heat.
Hudson-Smith still qualified for Tuesday’s semi-final, but faces questions over his fitness he could not immediately answer after crossing the finish line in 44.68s, enough to go through as one of the six fastest non-automatic qualifiers.
“It felt flat, and my hips are a bit iffy,” Hudson-Smith said. “I was running, and I felt, ‘Oh no my hips don’t feel good’. I got through it, but it hurt. I don’t know, I really don’t know, I literally had nothing. It’s weird.”
Charlie Dobson and Samuel Reardon also saw themselves through.
Revee Walcott-Nolan missed out after finishing eighth in her 1500m semi-final heat, but there was good news for Ireland’s Sarah Healy, who shares a coaching team with Keely Hodgkinson, as she booked a berth in Tuesday’s final.
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