Walter Dix will get two world title shots at Usain Bolt after wrapping up a sprint double at the US athletics championships with a 200m triumph in Oregon, on Sunday.
Dix, a double bronze medallist at the 2008 Olympics, won the 100m on Friday, in the absence of injured 2009 World Championships silver medallist Tyson Gay.
Dix followed up with a victory in the 200m in a wind-aided (2.4m/sec) 19.95sec and said he would only get better by the time the World Championships roll around in Daegu, South Korea, August 27-September 4.
“I feel really confident going into worlds. I’m confident I can win gold after today,” he said.
Darvis Patton was second in 19.98 and Jeremy Dodson third in 20.07.
The early exit of American record-holder Gay on Friday, when a sore hip forced him out before the semi-finals of the 100m, robbed the US World Championship team of the sprinter deemed most likely to challenge dual world record-holder Bolt in Daegu.
But Dix said his four days of racing had him looking forward to Bolt, or anyone else Jamaica and the world have to offer, in Korea.
“I knew I was strong, but I wasn’t race sharp and I came out here and did what I did,” said Dix, who plans to sharpen up with some races in Europe before the worlds.
Women’s 100m champion Car-melita Jeter appeared headed for a double when she came off the turn in the 200m in the lead.
But Shalonda Solomon ran her down to win in a world-leading, and personal best, 22.15sec.
Jeter’s second-place time of 22.23, in a race run in a legal wind of 1.0m/sec, was also inside the previous best in the world this year – Kimberlyn Duncan’s 22.24 set on June 11.
It was one of four world leading performances on the final day of the championships, as Kellie Wells improved on her own prior world leader in winning the 100m hurdles, Jesse Williams notched a season’s best in the men’s high jump and reigning world champion Britney Reese set the season standard in the women’s long jump.
Three-time US collegiate champion Jeshua Anderson, who turned 22 earlier this month, won a scintillating men’s 400m hurdles, edging 2005 world champion Bershawn Jackson with Angelo Taylor, the 2000 and 2008 Olympic champion, third.
Just one one-hundredth of a second separated the top three, with Anderson and Jackson both timed in 47.93 and Taylor clocking 47.94.
Williams won the high jump with a world-leading clearance of 2.37m. He eclipsed the mark of 2.35 set by Russian Aleksey Dmitrik on June 2.
With the victory secure, Williams failed in three attempts at 2.41.
Reese won the women’s long jump with a leap of 7.19m, easily outdistancing runner-up Janna DeLoach (6.97m) with Funmi Jimoh third (6.88). Reese also bettered the prior season’s best of 6.95 by Veronica Shutkova.
Wells won the 100m hurdles in a world-leading and lifetime-best 12.50sec, improving on her prior world leading time of 12.59 set in Doha.