USA’s Centrowitz eliminated from 1,500 meters
Olympic champion Matthew Centrowitz of the USA finished last in his 1,500-meter heat Thursday and is out of the world track and field championships.
With the top six of 14 runners going automatically through, Centrowitz trailed going into the finishing straight and never got any momentum going.
“Just didn’t execute my plan today, yeah,” Centrowitz told NBC Sports Network. “No one ever has a perfect lead-up to any championship. This year was a little bit more rough than others. It’s been a tough year. Today was a culmination of all those things that have been frustrating, disappointing this year.”
Almost exactly a year ago in Rio, Centrowitz became the first American in 108 years to win the 1,500 meters in the Olympics. In- jury and health issues and an admission that he didn’t train as much as necessary since winning the gold contributed to missing the final here.
“I dealt with more than I’ve ever had in my career, and it showed out there today,” Centrowitz told reporters. “My fitness is obviously not where I’d like to have been.
“Tough is the only word that comes to mind. Obviously, there’s a lot of expectations this year. I wanted to exceed those. It’s hard to duplicate the year I had.”
An even bigger surprise came in the 200 meters when Ramil Guliyev of Turkey earned the upset of the world championships by beating Wayde van Niekerk and Isaac Makwala.
Guliyev matched Van Niekerk stride for stride and won the 200 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, a little-known 27year-old 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, 0.02 seconds ahead of both Van Niekerk, who earlier won the
400, and Richards. The South African took silver by 0.001 seconds.
Guliyev held his hands over his mouth in sheer disbelief after the slow race.
“This is not a shock, but this does not feel real,” said Guliyev, whose best performance coming into the world championships was a silver medal in the European championships last year.
Van Niekerk can only be disappointed with gold and silver. He fell just short of getting the first
200-400 double in the world championships since Michael Johnson in 1995.
Still, he was upbeat. “Coming away with two medals — both a good color, gold and silver. I think it’s great for my ca- reer,” the 400-meter Olympic champion said.
In the first 200-meter final without Usain Bolt since 2009, it was wide open from the start. 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 belated entry in the heats, failed to sustain the early pace and quickly fell out of contention.
In another thrilling duel among the Americans, two-time Olympic champion Christian Taylor edged Will Claye in the triple jump.
Taylor won his third world title with a leap of 17.68 meters, 5 centimeters more than Claye.
Nelson Evora of Portugal took bronze with a jump of 17.19 meters.
Claye was the runner-up to Taylor in the last two Olympics.