Turkish delight as Guliyev strikes gold to deny Van Niekerk double

Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev shocked Wayde Van Niekerk to clinch the 200 metres title at the world championships.

South Africa’s Van Niekerk claimed silver to miss the chance to become the first man since Michael Johnson in 1995 to win the 400m and 200m double at the Worlds.

Guliyev won in 20.09 seconds, with Jereem Richards third, Great Britain’s Natheneel Mitchell-blake fourth and Botswana’s Isaac Makwala sixth.

Van Niekerk ran 20.11secs, with Richards crossing the line just one thousandth of a second behind him in a photo finish.

Botswana’s Makwala qualified on Wednesday after running a solo time trial and the semi-final, having been controversially denied entry to the stadium on Tuesday as world governing body the IAAF tried to combat an outbreak of the norovirus. Makwala and Botswana had been critical of his treatment and the 30-year-old said he was still running heartbroken after not being allowed to race in the 400m.

But he was never in contention last night as Guliyev, a European silver medal winner, won Turkey’s first gold medal of the championships.

Mitchell-blake made it yet another fourth for the home British team and admitted he was disappointed not to have snatched a medal. “I knew it would be a tough one. No excuses at all; Lane two is never an ideal lane but I put myself in that position.

“I tried to be really aggressive from the start, I had a great tracker with Wayde in front of me but it wasn’t enough today. All you can do is focus on yourself and all you can control is your individual performance.

“Nothing is perfect in the sport, all you can do is try and execute in the best way you can. Regardless of how I feel about the race, it wasn’t enough to get a medal. I don’t see my age as a barrier. I am 23 which is an age whereicang et a medal soi am not putting my age as any excuse.

“I have been on the highest stage with an Olympics so this just wasn’t enough today.”

Earlier, two-time Olympic champion and defending champion Christian Taylor won the triple jump, ahead of United States team-mate Will Claye, with a leap of 17.68 mas Portugal’s Nelson Evora took bronze.