After getting gold in the 100m at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden had said it was nothing short of a dream.

The 24-year-old was in dreamland again on Friday (19) as she won the 200m to become the first US woman and only the fourth in history to do the sprint double at a single World Championships.

Jefferson-Wooden was a class apart from the rest of the field, winning by almost half a second, a margin only previously surpassed by Allyson Felix back in 2007.

It was perhaps apt that her winning time of 21.68 also saw her move ahead of Felix in the world all-time list, in eighth, having earlier in the championships put herself fourth-fastest ever in the 100m.

“Being the first American to win the women's 200m at a World Championships since Allyson Felix means a lot. I looked up to her so much growing up,” said Jefferson-Wooden. “It's amazing to be able to hear these statistics – they just make me feel blessed and grateful for the position I am in now.

“Starting out with the 200m this season, I knew I was fast getting out of the curve. It was just the matter of whether I was going to die at the end of the race. I was scared of that. To dominate the 200m tonight feels special. To be able to win the double is amazing. The last one to do so was Shelly-Ann – it speaks volumes. In my first professional year I didn't make the team but that didn't stop me. I came back stronger and made an Olympic team, and now I am here. It's just a testament to my journey and how much faith I have, not only in myself but the people around me. Now I have one more gold to win (in the 4x100m).”

It was a race that had been pitted as something of a duel between Jefferson-Wooden and Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, who was also bidding to emulate Felix in winning three world 200m titles.

Jackson, who missed the Paris Olympics because of an injury-ravaged season in 2024, looked to be coming back to her best form this season.

But she found herself behind from the outset of the race and try as she might, she could not claw back her rival as she was surprisingly eclipsed to the silver by Great Britain’s Amy Hunt.

For Jackson it was still a 12th world medal after she just missed out on a podium place in the 100m despite clocking 10.88.

As Jefferson-Wooden sat on the track taking in the magnitude of her achievement, Hunt looked utterly jubilant with a silver medal that had been far from expected by even her biggest supporters.

The 23-year-old had struggled to back up her hugely impressive U20 career since joining the senior ranks. But 2025 has been her coming of age with personal bests in the 60m, 100m and 200m, and now a world medal. Her 20.12 was marginally slower than the 20.08 she had run in the semifinals, but the time was largely immaterial in light of the result for the shellshocked Briton.

The podium finishers were a contrast of emotions on the start line, too. While Hunt waved and smiled to the cameras and crowd, Jackson and Jefferson-Wooden were steely faced and barely gave the briefest of acknowledgements pre-race.

After her shock silver, Hunt said: “I didn’t know what to do – cry or smile. As soon as I saw my mum, I just burst into tears. I was a very promising athlete when I was younger but then studying and injuries came. I had to back myself a lot to be here and I’m proud of myself for choosing the harder path. I cannot believe I did it.”

It was a final missing the Olympic champion in Gabby Thomas, out with an achilles injury, while Julien Alfred, the silver medallist in that race behind the US runner, pulled out of the 200m with a hamstring problem incurred during the 100m final.

Jefferson-Wooden had laid down a marker in doing the sprint double at the US Trials and backed that up with a repeat at world level, becoming the first woman to do so in the sprint events since Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 2013.

With four world titles already to her name, Jefferson-Wooden, who had professed an aim to break the 100m world record after that final, will no doubt have similar ambitions in the 200m.

For now, though, she will have more immediate plans to complete a sprint treble come the end of these championships as the spearhead of a strong US quartet.