Olympic pointers from World Athletics Championships

Sha'Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles lit up the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, while 2024 Olympics host nation France went home without a single individual medal.

AFP Sport picks five themes from the championships in the Hungarian capital with an eye on the Paris Games in less than a year from now.

Lyles and Richardson bring the sass

Track and field needs its stars and the faces of the world championships in Budapest were arguably the American sprint pair of Noah Lyles and Sha'Carri Richardson.

Lyles bagged three golds (100, 200, 4x100m relay), while Richardson won the blue riband event and anchored the women's team to gold, while also picking up a bronze in the 200m.

The pair are outspoken and sometimes brazen in their criticism of media coverage, but there is no denying their appeal to a wider audience. The US track team for the Olympics will surely be based around them.

"It's fantastic, isn't it? They're absolute rock stars, they both have come through in the most powerful way," World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said.

READ | Team SA medal hopes extinguished as relay team drops the baton

Jackson carrying Jamaican sprint hopes

Jamaica's men continue to struggle in the individual sprints, Oblique Seville' fourth place in the 100m the best result.

Seville helped the men's relay team to a bronze, but it is a far cry from the days of Bolt, Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake dominating the speed events.

Instead it has fallen on Shericka Jackson to fly the flag, the sprinter running the second fastest time ever, 21.41sec, to retain her 200m title. "I will continue to work and I hope I can maintain at least this level and we will see if the world record will come," Jackson said.

France underwhelm with solitary medal

In