The US stars Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson are aiming for the sprint double at the World Championships in Athletics – Lyles had a strange accident in the golf cart shortly before his 200m semi-final.
But four days after his gold run in the 100m, Lyles stayed cool and, as the defending champion, easily advanced to the 200m final in 19.76 seconds (Friday, 9:50 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport). His race even had to be postponed by 25 minutes because of the crash. Richardson still had room to improve on her 22.20 seconds on her way to the final.
Lyles experienced a bit of a shock on the way to the stadium ahead of his semifinals. The athletes are driven from the warm-up area with golf carts over a small bridge to the arena on the Danube, where two vehicles collided.
A clearly shocked Lyles could be seen on TV pictures. Because the Jamaican Andrew Hudson injured his eye in the accident, the semifinals with Lyles were then postponed. Hudson only ran 20.38 seconds, which actually wouldn’t have been enough for the finale. But after a decision by the judges, the 26-year-old can now start in the final, he gets lane one.
“I worked hard to be here”
In the accident, he got a piece of glass in his eye, Hudson said afterwards. He was treated for 20 minutes, then “I did my best,” he said: “I worked hard to be here.” In the “literally sense of the word” he saw out of focus, said Hudson: “The race was blurry.” And: “Maybe next time I’d rather walk.”
Lyle’s biggest rivals for the 200m gold are likely to be Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo (19.97), runner-up in the 100m world champion, his compatriot Erriyon Knighton (19.98) and Britain’s Zharnel Hughes (20.02).
In addition to Richardson, defending champion Shericka Jackson (22.00) and the strong American Gabby Thomas (21.97) also have good chances in the women’s final (Friday, 9.40 p.m.).
Most recently, Jamaica’s legend Usain Bolt (2015 in Beijing) and his compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce (2013 in Moscow) won the double.
The German record holder Joshua Hartmann (Cologne) was surprisingly eliminated in the preliminary heat.