American Lyles delivers with 100m world gold
Noah Lyles has been talking up his 100 metres chances in the World Athletics Championships all week and the American 200 metres specialist backed up the chat where and when it mattered on Sunday as he took gold in a personal best 9.83 seconds.
It was a blanket finish behind him as Letsile Tebogo of Botswana took silver by one thousandth of a second from Briton Zharnel Hughes. Fourth-placed Oblique Seville of Jamaica was three thousandths of a second off the podium as all three men clocked 9.88.
Former champion Christian Coleman was also in the mix after a great start but was just overhauled to finish fifth in 9.92.
Tebogo, 20, is the first African to win a world 100m medal, while Hughes, the fastest in the world coming into the championships with 9.83, is the first Briton on the men's 100m podium since Darren Campbell took bronze 20 years ago.
It is the United States though who are firmly top of the sprinting tree again as Lyles' victory makes if four world titles in a row, following four in a row for Jamaica before that.
It had been billed as a wide open final and at 50 metres most of the field were locked together in a line.
Lyles, though forged his way to the front in the last 30 metres, just, and the event’s biggest showman had to delay his celebration until the big screen confirmed his triumph. He had predicted he would run 9.65 but a personal best of 9.83 proved enough.
Britain's Johnson-Thompson claims second world heptathlon title
Katarina Johnson-Thompson's athletics career appeared in doubt after a catastrophic ruptured Achilles tendon less than three years ago, but the British heptathlete became a world champion once again on Sunday in a remarkable comeback story.
The 30-year-old, who also won the world title four years ago in Doha, secured heptathlon gold with a gutsy second-place finish in the 800 metres, the gruelling final event. Her personal-best time of two minutes 5.63 seconds was good enough to take the title.
"I just knew I could prove to myself and prove to all the people that I could still do it," an emotional Johnson-Thompson said. "This is the culmination of so much hard work. I'm so happy I'm crying. I can't help it. Today I know if I believed in myself I could do it."
Johnson-Thompson finished with 6,740 points while 22-year-old Anna Hall of the United States, last year's world bronze medallist, captured the silver with 6,720 and Anouk Vetter of the Netherlands took the bronze (6,501).
Johnson-Thompson led Hall by 143 points heading into the 800, but knew the young American is excellent over the distance.
Katzberg takes shock hammer gold for Canada
Canadian 21-year-old Ethan Katzberg took a stunning World Championship hammer gold on Sunday with a massive national record throw of 81.25 metres in the fifth round.
Katzberg had smashed his personal best by more than two metres in qualifying and looked as if he could not believe he had triumphed in the final.
Poland's Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki took silver with 81.02, with Hungary's Bence Halasz a crowd-pleasing bronze in 80.82.
Pole Pawel Fajdek, seeking a sixth successive world title to match the record of pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, finished fourth.
For a while it looked as if Halasz, the 2019 bronze medallist, would win an emotional first-ever world gold for the host country on Hungary's National Day.
He was leading at the halfway point after a massive personal best of 80.82, only for Nowicki to edge past him by a centimetre.
The Pole then hit the front with 81.02, only for Katzberg to find the second-longest throw of the year in the fifth round, which proved enough for gold.
Serbia's Vuleta claims world long jump gold with season's best jump
Ivana Vuleta has had a career full of bronze medals, but the 33-year-old Serbian finally won long jump gold at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday.
Vuleta soared a personal-best 7.14 metres, top in the world this season, on her fifth of six jumps to secure the victory, saying her experience was an advantage.
"It has been a long, long, long ride," Vuleta said. "Every medal, every final is really special but at this age it is really hard to keep everything together.
"I am glad that I have used all the experience I have, it was my greatest ally."
Vuleta won bronze at both the 2013 and 2015 worlds and at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where her medal was Serbia's first in athletics at the Games.
Tara Davis-Woodhall of the United States captured the silver on Sunday with a leap of 6.91m in her senior world championship debut, while Alina Rotaru-Kottmann of Romania jumped 6.88m for bronze.
Cheptegei wins third successive 10,000m gold
Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei delivered a devastating last lap to win a third successive World Championship 10,000 metres gold on Sunday despite barely competing over 25 laps in the last three years.
The world record holder over 5000m and 10,000m has had an injury-hit year and struggled to hit his top form but, on a hot, humid night in Budapest he broke clear approaching the bell and stamped his authority over the field with a 53-second last lap to come home in 27:51.42.
Daniel Simiu Ebenyo of Kenya took silver with Selemon Barega of Ethiopia the bronze.
