Tokyo (AFP) – Noah Lyles kept alive his bid to match Usain Bolt’s record of four consecutive world 200 meters titles as he scorched to the fastest time of the year of 19.51sec in the semi-finals on Thursday. There was Tokyo heartbreak, however, for Australia’s 17-year-old sensation Gout Gout, who missed out on what would have been a first senior final.
There was no let-up from Lyles in his semi, as there often is with sprinters running heats in the knowledge they’ve already qualified for the next round. The 28-year-old American properly fired through the line at the National Stadium to better his previous world lead of 19.63sec set at the US trials. Lyles claimed bronze in Sunday’s 100m in Tokyo and immediately turned his attention to the 200m, which he called his “bread and butter.”
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“I surprised myself,” the American said on Thursday. “I kind of backed up a little bit as we got to the last 20 metres. I am going to put on a whole race in the final.” Lyles led home Anguilla-born Briton Zharnel Hughes, who clocked in 19.95sec. With just the top two from the three semi-finals plus the next two fastest qualifying, a fast heat is always likely to include the latter. So it proved as Zimbabwe’s Tapiwa Makarawu and South African Sinesipho Dambile both progressed from Lyles’ semi with 19.97sec and 19.98sec respectively.
– A good battle –
Jamaican Bryan Levell looked comfortable in winning the second semi in 19.78sec ahead of Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo (19.95sec), who won in Paris last year when Lyles finished third. “It’s a good feeling knowing that I made it to my first world championships final,” said the 21-year-old Levell. “It seems I’ve gotten Noah’s attention. I know he’s a great competitor. So are the other Olympic champions, Letsile, Kenny…it’s going to be a good battle.”
Tebogo will be looking for some kind of redemption after a terrible false start in the 100m in the Japanese capital. “I wanted to test the curve because yesterday we only ran the straight so today was just to test that curve and then tomorrow is just to combine the two and just let everything go out,” said Tebogo, 22. “Definitely there has to be a big one inside me.”
American Courtney Lindsey was third, just ahead of Gout. The teenager, who has been compared to Bolt because of his rapid progression at a young age, struggled at this rarefied level and missed out on a qualifying place by some distance after clocking 20.36sec. American Kenny Bednarek won the opening semi in 19.88sec ahead of Dominican Republic’s Alexander Ogando. Bednarek, who finished fourth in the men’s 100m, clocked 19.67sec in following Lyles home at the US trials and then shoved Lyles in the back for what he called unsportsmanlike behaviour when he stared him down over the finish line. That should add some spice to Friday’s final.
South Africa’s 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk is out though, his fourth place in Lyles’s heat in 20.12sec proving insufficient for the 2016 Olympic 400m champion to advance.
© 2024 AFP
