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Paul Myers

Lyles flies to 100m title at Budapest world athletics championships

The American sprinter Noah Lyles backed up his bragging to win the 100m gold medal at the world athletics championships in Budapest. AP - Ashley Landis

Noah Lyles lived up to his boasting on Sunday and claimed the men's 100m title at the world athletics championships in Budapest at the end of a pulsating night of action in which Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson produced two lifetime best performances to clinch gold in the women's heptathlon.

Lyles had spent the prelude to the meeting at the National Athletics Centre sparring verbally with his compatriot Fred Kerley about who was the fastest.

That taunt was won in emphatic fashion a few hours after Kerley had been eliminated in the semi-finals.

Lyles won the final with a world-leading time of 9.83 seconds.

Letsile Tobogo from Botswana was second in 9.88 seconds and Zharnel Hughes from Britain won the bronze medal to become the first man from that country to claim a place on the podium since Darren Campbell took the same prize at the 2003 championships in Paris.

Johnson-Thompson won her second world championships in the heptathlon in a nail-biting finale.

The 30-year-old, who claimed the title in Doha in 2019, went into Sunday's final three events in second place, 93 points behind Anna Hall from the United States.

Johnson-Thompson took a 19 point lead following the long jump and extended the advantage to 43 points after a personal best throw of 46.14m in the javelin.

That meant she had to beat or finish within three seconds of Hall in the 800m to claim the title.

Hall set off at a furious pace in the chase for glory and opened up a big gap on the field. But Johnson-Thompson reeled her in down the back straight to finish just over a second and a half behind in another personal best time of 2:05.63

"It's probably one of the best competitive performances I've done in my life," said Johnson-Thompson.

"That performance in the 800m proved that I've still got some goods in me. I'm so excited for the Olympics."

Dominance

In the night's other final on the running track, Joshua Cheptegei, the world record holder, surged to the 10,000m crown for a third consecutive championships.

The Ugandan finished in 27:51.42 - the best time of the season. Daniel Simiu Ebenyo from Kenya was second and the Ethiopian Selemon Barega pipped compatriot Berihu Aregawi to the bronze.

Cheptegei powered to the front just before the bell before the final lap.

"I decided I needed to be in charge in the last 500 metres because that's always been one of my strengths," said the 26-year-old. "I'm really proud I was able to do it."

Long jump

Ivana Vuelta from Serbia won the women's long jump. After botching her first attempt, Vuelta set the standard with her second jump of 7.05 - 14 cenimetres better than Tara Davis-Woodhall's initial jump.

Davis-Woodhall was unable to better her own mark and Vuelta effectively wrapped up the contest when she registgered 7.24m with her fifth jump. Davis Wood collected the silver for the United States and Alina Rotaru-Kottmann from Romania snatched bronze with her last jump of 6.88m.

Ethan Katzberg won Canada's first medal of the championships with gold in the men's hammer with a national record throw of 81.25m.

Wojciech Nowicki from Poland took silver and a massive roar went up from the partisans when Bence Halasz collected bronze - Hungary's first medal of the championships.

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