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Sprint king Matthew Brennan claimed a fifth Vuelta a Espana stage victory on Wednesday as he edged a bunch sprint in Seville to win the 17th stage.The 21-year-old Grand Tour debutant crossed the finish line ahead of Jordi Meeus and Magnus Cort Nielsen.General classification leader Enric Mas moved one step closer to claiming a first Grand Tour victory as he maintained his 2min 6sec lead on Felix Gall, with four-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic a further four seconds behind.The stage was set up for the bunch sprint finale, without a single climb on the long, flat, 185 kilometre ride from Dos Hermanas to the Andalusian capital.Sinuhe Fernandez and Enzo Paleni formed a two-man break early on, whipping up a gap of more than four minutes on the peloton, who were moving at a leisurely pace on another hot day with temperatures over 30C.The gap extended to over five minutes around the halfway point, with Visma then working hard to reduce it.Groupama FDJ-United rider Paleni dropped Fernandez but was absorbed by the peloton with just three kilometres remaining after a monumental effort.Young star Brennan came around Danish rider Cort to claim the sprint victory, holding off Belgium's Meeus who crossed the line second.As with his other stage victories, the Briton raised his hand to the air, this time with all of his fingers up to represent his five victories.Brennan's victory puts him in a small bracket of riders, including Tadej Pogacar -- who was overwhelming favourite to win this year's Vuelta before he suffered a season-ending injury in a crash in stage eight -- to claim five or more stages at a single Grand Tour.On Thursday, riders take on a 32.1km individual time-trial from El Puerto de Santa Maria to Jerez de la Frontera in stage 18, which is one of the last chances for Mas's general classification contenders to cut down the gap on the Spaniard. 

Sprint stars Oblique Seville and Julien Alfred won their respective races on the opening day of the two-day Diamond League finals in Brussels on Friday.But the evening's entertainment was mired by the withdrawal of Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis with a tightness in his leg that had resurfaced at last week's meet in Zurich. "I pushed through it, probably a little bit too much. I said that if I felt this irritation during my warm-up, I wasn't going to jump," the US-born Swede said.Duplantis admitted he was not certain to make the inaugural season-ending World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest next week."I don't have the answer right now," he said on whether he would be fit enough to compete in Hungary where there will be a prize money pot of $10mn.To make Duplantis's night even worse, Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis won the pole vault with a meet record of 6.12m, beating by 1cm the previous best set by the Swede in 2024. Back on the track, world 100m champion Seville overcame a poor start to win the blue riband race in 9.90sec ahead of Cameroon's Emmanuel Eseme.The Jamaican left it late to reel in the field, but looked comfortable as he crossed the line. "My start was far from the best, but the aim is always to win so I won't complain," said Seville. "I didn't change too much after becoming a world champion. What I was doing clearly worked and this season is further proof of that. Next season I want to extend my title and dominate the Diamond League."St Lucia's Olympic champion Alfred made short work of the women's 200m, winning in 21.79sec ahead of American Kayla White.In a night of six meeting records, the most impressive was arguably set by Botswana's world champion Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, who scorched to an impressive 43.40sec in the 400m.It was the joint fifth fastest time ever run over the one-lap race, smashing by 0.23sec the previous best set in 2021 by American Michael Cherry, as the top four all posted sub-44sec times.Trinidad and Tobago's Jereem Richards set a national record in second ahead of the US pair of Jacory Patterson and Chris Bailey, both in personal bests.Not to be outdone, Kenya's world and Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi won his fourth consecutive Diamond League title with victory in 1:41.80, smashing by 0.40sec the meet record set by Denmark's Wilson Kipketer in 1997."Today was all about winning and I knew that I would have to run 1:41 to win – and I did," said Wanyonyi.There was a second Kenyan meeting record, this time by Faith Cherotich, who won her third Diamond League title in a row in 8:51.61.Australian Cameron Myers came out top of a loaded 1,500m, winning in 3:30.14 as Norwegian wildcard Jakob Ingebrigtsen cracked down the home straight to end up fifth.American Chase Jackson also set a new area, meet and Diamond League record in winning the women's shot with 21.14m -- an improvement of 12cm on her personal best.Jackson's teammate and world record holder Ja'Kobe Tharp, still just 20, stormed to victory in the 110m hurdles in 13.03sec.Jamaica's Tajay Gayle went out to a season's best of 8.46m to edge Greek's Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglu by 6cm in the long jump, while Slovenia's Kristjan Ceh managed a meet record of 71.29m to outgun Mykolas Alekna in the men's discus.American Valarie Sion's five-year title-winning discus streak came to an end, however, as Feng Bin managed a best of 67.46m to become the first Chinese athlete to be crowned Diamond League champion since 2019. 

Oblique Seville and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden recorded their first major victories in winning the men's and women's 100m world titles Sunday, making it honours even between sprint powerhouses Jamaica and the United States.It was a good night in Tokyo for the Americans as two of their outstanding field athletes, Olympic champions Tara Davis-Woodhall and Valarie Allman, won the women's long jump and discus respectively.For Allman it filled a yawning space in her burgeoning medals cabinet -- a world title.There was a once-in-a-blue-moon ending in the men's 10,000m as Europe got the better of the cream of African distance running -- France's Jimmy Gressier took the honours.It was a first victory over the distance for a European since Somalia-born Briton Mo Farah in 2017 - he also won in 2013 and 2015. Italian Alberto Cova won the event at the inaugural edition of the worlds in 1983.Seville secured Jamaica's first men's world 100m title in 10 years leading home a Jamaican 1-2. The onwatching Usain Bolt did the sprint double at the 2015 worlds in Beijing.As Seville ripped his vest in celebration, teammate Kishane Thompson, who had to settle for silver as he did at the Olympics last year, embraced him.Olympic and defending world champion Noah Lyles was third.Seville had finished fourth in the two previous world finals but the 24-year-old said he had always retained belief in himself even if others had not."A lot of people are saying that I am panicking (in the last two finals). I don't know what they are talking about," he said."But I have proved myself that I am a champion and I hope that they can see that Oblique Seville is actually competitive and a warrior."Jefferson-Wooden succeeded her training partner Sha'Carri Richardson as world champion -- the latter finished fifth.Jefferson-Wooden -- who took bronze in the Olympic final last year behind Julien Alfred, who could only finish third on Sunday -- timed a new championship record of 10.61sec.The 24-year-old and Richardson are coached by the controversial former sprinter Dennis Mitchell, who served a doping ban as an athlete.Jefferson-Wooden said it had taken her some time to learn how to cope with the stresses and strains at major championships."I have been dreaming of this moment," she added."Instead of putting the pressure on myself and taking it as something overwhelming, I was just embracing it."That (change) was worth the gold medal tonight."She will bid to achieve the sprint double in the 200m later in the championships.'Felt incomplete'The race may be recalled in the years to come as the last individual global final contested by 38-year-old Jamaican legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who finished sixth.She said: "It's a surreal moment to know that 18 years ago I started as an athlete that wasn't sure what I wanted to do or who I was, and to be here in this moment continuing... to push the limits and finish on your own terms."Allman, twice a minor medallist at the worlds stamped her authority on the other finalists from the first throw of 67.63 metres and rammed home her superiority home in the fifth round with 69.48m.The former dancer raised her arms in celebration once victory was confirmed, and ran with a beaming smile to her coach in the stands."I didn''t realise before how much I wanted to become the world champion," she said."There was a part of me that felt incomplete."Allman, who took silver two years ago and bronze in 2022, conceded she had felt the pressure keenly going in to the final."The nerves hit me but now everything has fallen off my shoulders," she said."I keep looking at this medal and can''t believe it's real."Davis-Woodhall followed up Olympic gold with a long jump world title, outclassing the field with a leap of 7.13m.Gressier, 28, was like a terrier snapping at the heels of the Ethiopians on the final lap and the 28-year-old's final bite was the killer blow."This is a child's dream come true," he said.