VAN SPLUTTERS TO SILVER
Favourite Wayde is run down by Guliyev
IT wasn’T the sick boy and it wasn’t the golden boy. Instead it was a largely overlooked azerbaijani in a Turkish vest who rocked up to the 200 metres final last night and left with the prize.
Ramil Guliyev, a 27- year- old without a global medal to his name, stole the show and stole the day, beating wayde van niekerk and Isaac Makwala along the way.
who called it? nobody. who wanted it? That is open to debate, given the serious doubts over the quality of doping controls in Turkey. But what cannot be denied is the magnitude of the shock caused by this result.
The pre-race fascination was loaded squarely on two narratives, one scripted and idealistic, the other littered with drama. would it be Van niekerk, the south african heir apparent to Usain Bolt who had won the 400m and was pursuing the first such double since Michael Johnson in 1995?
Or would it be Makwala and one of the most bonkers sporting tales of the century? His adventure to reach the start-line, via quarantine for a contagious illness and a heat contested on an empty track, was absurd. with it, he set up a brilliant showdown for Bolt’s crown.
But then Guliyev showed up and in 20.09sec obliterated common logic, beating Van niekerk into second and Jereem Richards into third. nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Britain’s best hope, was fourth and Makwala sixth.
‘This is not a shock but this does not feel real,’ Guliyev said. ‘I am so proud. This title means a lot.
‘This is the best moment of my career. I was competing against some of the best athletes in the world, so it didn’t bother me that the attention was on them. Maybe at the next competition everyone will look at me instead.’ Of course, it will lead to raised eyebrows — Paula Radcliffe in the past week has raised valid questions about doping controls in Turkey.
Indeed, four of their nine finalists at the 2012 Olympics have served drugs bans. against that statistic, it is hard to blindly accept their first gold at these Championships.
For Guliyev (below), who remains the second fastest junior 200m runner in history behind Bolt, it is a world title to succeed his best previous accolade, which was European silver in 2016.
For Van niekerk, there were positive words from a face that looked ready to crack. ‘It was a massive rollercoaster for me, this competition,’ he said. ‘I’m coming away with two medals and both a good colour, gold and silver.’
MitchellBlake exceeded expectations but said: ‘I am 23 which is an age where I can get a medal. I have been on the highest stage at an Olympics, so this just wasn’t enough. I need to learn from it.’ Earlier, Laura Muir reached sunday’s final of the 5,000m, but stirred doubts about her medal credentials at the distance after finishing seventh in her heat. with the first five from two heats going through automatically, the 24-year- old edged through in 14:59.34 as one of the five fastest losers. It was her fastest time outdoors at the distance and she found the pace tough. It remains to be seen how she will fare when greater stakes are on the table, though she denied she was carrying any physical or mental baggage from her stirring run to fourth in the 1500m final. she said: ‘The most pressure I get is from myself. I’m better than I ran today and hopefully I’ll show it in the final.’
she was joined there by Eilish McColgan, who ran a personal best of 15:00.38.
In the high jump, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Morgan Lake qualified for saturday’s final. It won’t have been lost on JohnsonThompson that her 1.92m jump would have been enough for a silver medal had she managed it in the heptathlon, where she flopped with a 1.80m clearance.
Dina asher-smith continued her impressive return from a broken foot by reaching the 200m final, in a season’s best of 22.73sec.
south africa’s Caster semenya, who beat Muir to third in that 1500m final, eased to victory in her opener at her more natural distance of 800m. Britain’s shelayna Oskan-Clarke, Lynsey sharp and adelle Tracey also progressed to the semi-final.
In the 1500m, Jake wightman and Chris O’Hare qualified for the semi-final, while Eilidh Doyle was eighth in the 400m hurdles final.