It didn’t look it, but Seville said that in the semi-final and then the final on Sunday night he panicked again. Maybe a bit of panic is a good thing.
“I have proved that I am a true competitor, that I have the determination of a champion,” he said.
“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.”
And they couldn’t.
Absolute ecstasy: Jamaica’s Oblique Seville after crossing the finish line.Credit: Getty Images
He didn’t look like he panicked when he was beaten out of the blocks. He was not slow but nor was he quick. He came out of that drive phase at the start of the race much sooner than Kishane Thompson, but he settled on his shoulder.
Across to his left four runners were all ahead of him. Lyles wasn’t. He was, as is often his case, slow out of the blocks, but this time unable to make up ground in the second half of the race where he normally wins it.
This time it was Seville. He didn’t look to be panicking when he kept driving through that final 30 metres and finally edged ahead of his compatriot
He hit the line in 9.77 seconds to win gold from Thompson (9.82) with Lyles (9.89) winning bronze. This time Thompson was denied gold by five hundredths of a second by a compatriot, a year ago in Paris he was denied gold by Lyles by five thousandths of a second.
Oblique Seville (far left) crosses the finish line in first place to take the gold.Credit: Getty Images
“The last time Jamaica have won the men’s 100m world gold medal (Olympic) was in 2016 when Usain Bolt got it,” Seville said.
“I feel really amazing and excited that the gold is coming home to Jamaica.”
Usain Bolt was in the stands watching and hoping for a Jamaican to reassert the country’s primacy in sprinting. No Jamaican had won a medal at the worlds since Bolt in 2015 or his Olympic gold at Rio in 2016.
That it was Seville that should do it was unsurprising to Bolt. He had previously predicted he could be the man to break his world record.
“To win this gold medal is something special to me. Track and field is both mental and physical. But to be honest, I think I have mastered the mental part of it. Other people are doing and talking about other things, but I just focus on me and that is why I managed to get this victory,” Seville said.
“It is just tremendous feeling to compete in front of Usain here in Tokyo. His coach is my coach and I know that both of them are very proud of me right now. They were like ‘I am going to be the world champion’. But I have proved, in front of him, that I am a champion and I am very proud of that. Now, more gold medals.”
‘Oh wow, I won!’
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden hit the line a world champion and had a double take moment.
“Oh wow I’ve won,” she said after the women’s 100m final.
To be fair the rest of the crowd thought the same. It was breathtaking. Only Flo-Jo, Elaine Thompson and Shelley Anne Fraser Pryce had all run faster than her 10.61 seconds to win gold. That is rarefied air.
The American was so dominant she won comfortably over one of the most credentialled fields ever.
“I have been dreaming of this moment,” she said after winning from Jamaica’s Tina Clayton (10.76s) and Julien Alfred (10.84s).
Sheer joy: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the United States.Credit: AP
“Instead of putting the pressure on myself and taking it as something overwhelming, I was just embracing it. That (change) was worth the gold medal tonight.
“It’s amazing. It is literally everything I have been working on the whole year around. Coming out with the gold medal and a championship record, it’s a great start to my second world championships.
“When the gun went off, I just thought ‘Come on, get out strong’. The rest of the race went like a blink of an eye. When I crossed the line I was like ‘Oh wow, I won’.
“Today was all about me, about trusting my abilities, my coach, the line I have been given and my faith. And just trusting that I was prepared for this moment.”
That veteran Jamaican Shelley-Anne Fraser Price, despite being a three-time Olympic champion, 10-time world champion and four-time Olympic silver medallist, even made the final at 38 is as much a testament to her imperious career as her haul of gold.
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