The 21-year-old became the first woman to run under 22 seconds since fellow American Inger Miller took world championship gold with 21.77 in 1999.
"I feel so good, I'm so excited. Tonight is special," said an ecstatic Felix.
"I've been waiting for so long to run under 22 seconds. It has not been an easy road, but finally I managed it.
"Everything went as I wanted. After my start, which was not the best as usual, I just stayed focused," the champ added.
"I knew that I have a strong finish, that I really had to take it off on the home stretch."
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"I've been waiting for so long to run under 22 seconds. It has not been an easy road, but finally I managed it."
Allyson Felix, 200m World Champion |
Veronica Campbell, the new 100m world champion and current Olympic 200m champion, finished second, well adrift of Felix in 22.34 seconds with Sri Lankan 31-year-old Susanthika Jayasinghe taking a surprise bronze in 22.63.
Campbell, who was eyeing a 100m and 200m sprint double, led the field around the bend at the Nagai Stadium, but Felix was just winding up and blew past her rival after the turn before surging away to an impressive win.
"I'm thankful, a medal is a medal," said Campbell.
"In the last 100m I felt she was on her own. I tried, but it was more difficult than the shorter final."
New season-lead
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Felix will have to go even faster if she is to beat
Flo-Jo's 200m record of 21.34 [GALLO/GETTY] |
Felix beat her own season-leading time by a huge 0.37, with the performance confirming the Olympic silver medallist as the world's premier 200m runner and vindicating coach Bobby Kersee's decision to pull her out of the 100m.
The veteran Jayasinghe, Asia's most decorated female sprinter, condemned 2003 silver medallist Torri Edwards of the United States to her second fourth-place finish after she also missed the 100m podium.
Jayasinghe finished strongly to snatch bronze from Edwards a decade after winning her last world championship medal by finishing second in Athens in 1997.
"I just got Sri Lanka's president on the phone, he congratulated me and said he'll help for my future," said the delighted Jayasinghe, who can add the medal to her 1997 silver and Olympic bronze from Sydney 2000.
"I don't train there, mostly in Los Angeles, but now I want to go back to my country very soon because they are waiting for me.
"For the future, I now dream about Olympic gold. I believe in myself."
Campbell, 25, was aiming to become the third woman to win the sprint double following Silke Gladisch in 1987 and Katrin Krabbe in 1991, but after getting the better of Felix at the 2004 Olympics the American has had her measure.
It was the United States' fourth title in the women's 200m event after Miller in 1999, Marion Jones in 2001 and Felix's win two years ago.
The late Florence Griffith-Joyner holds the 200m world record of 21.34 set in Seoul in 1988.