Jamaica won the 400m world championship for the first time in 40 years
Watson made a splash when he first attended the world final in the professional arena. The Jamaican runner took the lead from Matthew Hudson-Smith in the last 100 and won with 44 seconds 24, 0.09 seconds behind the individual best (PB) set in the semi-finals in Budapest. .
Watson won his first major title and became the first Jamaican runner to win a 400m gold medal since the legendary Bert Cameron won in 1983 with 45 seconds 5.
Watson, born in 2001, is a promising Jamaican runner. He won the 400m gold medal at the 2017 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Nairobi, Kenya. Watson also won the 200m silver medal at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the 200m bronze and 4x100 relay gold at the 2021 NACAC U23 Championship.
"I felt very excited when I entered the world athletics tournament for the first time and immediately won a gold medal. I always believed in myself, went out to the field to give my best, ran straight to the finish line and won," Watson said in a statement. mixed area.
Hudson-Smith dominated the first half of the race, but fell short of breath in the decisive period and accepted the silver medal with 44 seconds 31. Hudson-Smith traveled to Budapest with a personal best (PB) of 44 seconds 35, and set a European record in the semi-finals with 44 seconds 26, beating the 44 seconds 33 mark set by Thomas Schonlebe in Rome 1987.
Hudson-Smith revealed he's struggled with a Achilles tendon injury in recent weeks, running short of breath in the final 30m - something different from competing in the semifinals, and aspiring to become the first British runner to win a gold medal. 400m world in the near future.
US NCAA 2019 champion Quincy Hall reached PB with 44 seconds 37 to take the silver medal, ahead of compatriot Vernon Norwood by just 0.02 seconds.
World record holder Wayde van Niekerk started well, but couldn't maintain the pace and finish in the end. Olympic champion Kirani James was more disappointing when he finished fifth, but was disqualified for a lane violation.
