Semifinals: Sunday 13 Sep, 18:44
Ultimate: Sunday 13 Sep, 20:49
Contenders:
Gabby Thomas (USA) 🏅
Melissa Jefferson-Picket (USA) 🌍
Amy Hunt (GBR)
Anavia Battle (USA)
Kayla White (USA)
Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH)
Cambrea Sturgis (USA)
Fabienne Hoenke (SUI)
Ashanti Moore (JAM)
Torrie Lewis (AUS)
Jaël Bestué (ESP)
Jenna Prandini (USA)
Success Eduan (GBR)
Rhasidat Adeleke (IRL)
Gémima Joseph (FRA)
Lavanya Williams (JAM)
Boglárka Takács (HUN)
World lead: 21.51 Julien Alfred (LCA) Monaco, 10 Jul
2026 world record | world rankings
World document: 21.34 Florence Griffith Joyner (USA) Seoul, 29 Sep 1988
world all-time record | world document development
- World champion Melissa Jefferson-Picket begins with the quickest time of the sector – 21.69
- Olympic champion Gabby Thomas races again on the observe the place she obtained 2023 world silver
- World medallists Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Amy Hunt amongst contenders
The conflict to grow to be the ladies’s 200m Final Champion is led by the Olympic champion and the world champion as Gabby Thomas takes on her US compatriot Melissa Jefferson-Picket.
Thomas clinched the Olympic crown in Paris two years in the past whereas Jefferson-Picket gained the world title as a part of a gold medal treble in Tokyo final yr and now they race for a brand-new prize. The ladies’s 200m is the final closing on the observe in Budapest, closing an intense three-evening programme, and it’s a conflict price ready for.
Jefferson-Picket has the quickest time of the sector this yr because of the 21.69 she ran to win the US title in New York in July – simply 0.01 off the PB she set to win her world title in Tokyo. That places her second on the season high record behind world chief Julien Alfred, who has opted to deal with the 100m in Budapest, whereas Jefferson-Picket is among the many athletes entered for a dash double.
Thomas, in the meantime, ran 21.70 in School Station in June and 21.83 to win on the Continental Tour Gold assembly in Budapest the next month – on the similar venue that can host the Final Championship, the place she claimed world silver in 2023. She was runner-up to Alfred on the London Diamond League and the Final shall be her first 200m since then.
US sprinters fill 5 of the main seven locations on the entry record in terms of world rankings, Thomas and Jefferson-Picket joined in the direction of the highest by Anavia Battle, Kayla White and Cambrea Sturgis. White has run 21.92 this yr and he or she gained the Lausanne Diamond League and was second within the Diamond League Ultimate, whereas Battle was fourth and Sturgis was fifth in Brussels.
They had been cut up there by Nice Britain’s world silver medallist Amy Hunt who can be entered for an Final 100m and 200m double on the finish of a season by which she clinched 4 European titles. She went on to complete second within the 100m and third within the 200m on the Diamond League Ultimate.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo provides additional star high quality to the sector. The 2-time Olympic 400m champion has completed within the high 4 in every of the Diamond League races she has contested this season, getting second place in Shanghai and Xiamen, clocking 22.04 within the latter, and third in London behind Alfred and Thomas.
By the point of the ladies’s 200m, there’ll solely be one remaining crown to be claimed. All eyes shall be on the observe to see the way it performs out.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
Title key: 🏅 Olympic champion, 🌍 world champion, 💎 Diamond League champion
