We have lengthy recognized that Noah Lyles has the persona and panache to transcend his sport. On a sweaty evening in Budapest, the American celebrity, fashionista and self-proclaimed influencer confirmed that he packs an almighty one-two punch, too.
Having already received gold in the 100m on Sunday evening, the 26-year-old adopted up with a dominant victory over 200m to grow to be the primary man since Usain Bolt in 2015 to win the dash double on the World Athletics Championships.
At midway Lyles was solely 0.02 seconds forward of his compatriot Erriyon Knighton. But then the afterburners got here on, and with each raking stride his lead was stretched and his victory turned all of the extra emphatic. His time of 19.50sec would have been even faster if it had not been for a destructive wind buffeting his face.
The 19-year-old Knighton took silver in 19.75, whereas the 20-year-old Letslie Tebogo from Botswana claimed bronze. You sense their day will come. But proper now Lyles is the person.
As cries of “USA, USA” rang out throughout Budapest for the primary time, he jumped into the group to have a good time. Britain’s Zharnel Hughes took a creditable fourth in 20.02sec, however he seemed a bit of drained.
Earlier the Jamaican Shericka Jackson ran the second quickest girls’s 200m in historical past to set a championship report of 21.41 and retain her world title. With the good thing about a larger than +0.1 wind in her favour she may properly have damaged Florence Griffith Joyner’s controversial world report of 21.34, which has stood for 35 years.
Behind Jackson, the American Gabby Thomas ran an outstanding race to end second in 21.81, whereas her compatriot Sha’Carri Richardson, who received 100m gold, had to accept bronze in 21.92.
Britain’s Daryll Neita was delighted to set a private greatest of twenty-two.16 however Dina Asher-Smith, who received bronze final 12 months, was nonetheless feeling the harm she picked up in the 100m semi-finals and will solely come in seventh in 22.34.
“It’s been a very tough week,” mentioned Asher-Smith. “I was in incredible shape, but after 60m of the 100m semi-finals I just couldn’t feel anything below my waist. Sometimes when life hands you lemons, you have to make lemonade. I did the best with the curse I have been handed this week.”
Elsewhere Britain’s greatest shot for a 3rd gold medal at these championships, Keely Hodgkinson, progressed to Sunday’s girls’s 800m remaining with ease in 1:58.48 and mentioned she was relishing a conflict with the US Olympic and world champion, Athing Mu, as properly the Kenyan Mary Moraa, who beat her in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she mentioned. “The stadium is amazing. The vibes are amazing. Good hopes for Sunday.”
Jemma Reekie additionally certified with a victory in her semi-final, though she had to weave her manner by way of the pack after switching off with 200m to go. “That wasn’t the plan,” mentioned the 25-year-old, who received in 2:00.48.
Moraa received the third and remaining semi-final in 1:58.48, simply forward of Mu, who did properly to get well after dropping a number of metres after almost being tripped by the South African Prudence Sekgodiso.
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Both of Britain’s 4x100m teams will compete in the finals on Saturday, although the men’s quartet needed a fine run from the “world’s fastest account”, Eugene Amo-Dadzie, on the anchor leg to book their place.
Britain’s men were in fourth when Amo-Dadzie picked up the baton on the anchor leg, but he stormed past the Brazilian team to finish third in their heat and qualify automatically for the final in 38.01.
Afterwards a defiant Jeremiah Azu, who ran the first leg, insisted the team were not thinking about Reece Prescod, who walked out of the relay squad last week. “We came together and said just qualify for the final,” he said. “We’re confident in our ability, GB relays, we win medals, for people to write us off is a very silly thing.”
Britain’s women also put out a confident message after coming second behind a strong Jamaican team in a season’s-best 42.33. “We can win whatever we put our minds to, I truly believe that,” said Imani Lara-Lansiquot.
Elsewhere on day seven of these championships, the triple jumper Yulimar Rojas retained her title with a last round leap of 15.08m. The Colombian world record-holder had been struggling and was down in seventh before a tremendous final jump took her ahead of Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, who had led all the way with a first round jump of 15 metres.
There was similar drama in the women’s javelin as the Japanese star Haruka Kitaguchi threw 66.73m on her final throw to move up from fourth to first and ahead of the Colombian Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado. The Australian Mackenzie Little was third.
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