Fred Kerley has led an American sweep of the medals in the men's 100 metres at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The United States last claimed all three medals in the event 31 years ago, when Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell went gold-silver-bronze at the 1991 world titles in Tokyo.
Kerley leaned at the line to finish in 9.86 seconds and beat both Marvin Bracy and Trayvon Bromell by 0.02.
"We said we were going to do it and we did it," Kerley said in his on-track interview.
Kerley arrived in Eugene as the favourite. His reward is a gold medal in an event he did not take seriously until the lead-up to last year's Tokyo Olympics, having been a world-class 400m athlete until that point.
He finished second last year to Italy's Marcell Jacobs in the Olympic final.
A leg injury had bothered the Italian this season, and when a "DNS" — did not start — showed up by his name in the semifinals earlier in the evening in Eugene, the field began clearing.
It opened up further when Canadian Olympic bronze medallist Andre De Grasse — diagnosed with COVID-19 a few weeks ago — finished fifth in the same semifinal.
Other world champions crowned on day two in Eugene were Wang Jianan of China in the men's long jump, Chase Ealey of the US in the women's shot put and Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey in the women's 10,000m.
AP/ABC
