Upset in 200
Ramil Guliyev ( above) of Turkey earned the upset at the world championships Thursday when he won the 200- meter title by lunging at the line just ahead of favored Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa.
LONDON — It wasn’ t Wayde van Niekerk and it wasn’t Isaac Makwala.
Instead, Ramil Guliyev of Turkey earned the upset at the world championships on Thursday when he matched Van Niekerk stride for stride and won the 200- meter title by lunging at the line just ahead of the favored South African.
Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago took bronze, while Makwala faded down the stretch and finished sixth.
Guliyev, 27, a little- known sprinter who transferred nationality from Azerbaijan six years ago, was not even among the top- 10 performers this year before he stunned his rivals and the 60,000- sellout crowd at the Olympic Stadium, which had come to see Van Niekerk and Makwala fight for gold.
Guliyev finished in 20.09 seconds, .02 seconds ahead of both Van Niekerk and Richards. The South African took silver by .001 seconds.
It was the slowest final since 2003.
In the first 200- meter final without Usain Bolt since 2009, it was wide open from the start.
Guliyev had the second- slowest start of the eight finalists but he quickly surged among the leaders. Van Niekerk was slightly ahead coming off the bend but could not make his fluent stride count as Guliyev stuck with him all the way.
Makwala, at the end of the saga that started with a stomach virus early in the week followed by a forced quarantine and belated entry in the 200 heats, failed to sustain the early pace and quickly fell out of contention.
As shocking as the 200 turned out to be, the triple jump was predictable — another great fight between American teammates Christian Taylor and Will Claye.
As usual, Taylor came out on top. The two- time Olympic champion won with a leap of 17.68 meters. Claye, the runnerup behind Taylor at the last two Olympics, was 5 centimeters behind for silver.
On another good day for the U. S. team, the Americans also got a 1- 2 finish in the women’s 400 hurdles.
Running in the outside lane, Kori Carter picked up speed after 100 meters and never wavered, winning in 53.07 seconds. That was .43 seconds ahead of Dalilah Muhammad. Ristananna Tracey of Jamaica got bronze.
With three days to go, the United States has 19 medals overall. Kenya is second with seven. In the gold- medal rankings, the Americans lead with six, while Kenya has three.