Sprint king Usain Bolt and US rival Justin Gatlin swept into the 200m final with consummate ease yesterday as they prepare to resume hostilities at the world championships.
Gatlin, a two-time doping offender looking to avenge his defeat by Bolt in the weekend’s 100m, clocked the fastest time of the semi-finals in 19.87 seconds in Beijing, with Bolt second-fastest in 19.95 going into today’s dust-up.
Smiling as he decelerated well before the line, defending champion Bolt, also the Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder, indulged in similar kidology in the 100m before smashing Gatlin’s hopes in the final.
Photo: AP
Also yesterday, Mo Farah’s bid to defend his double world distance titles almost came unstuck as he was tripped coming into the final 200m of his 5,000m heat.
Great Britain’s Farah, who won 10,000m gold on Saturday, was in control of the race throughout, but was clipped coming into the final bend, leaving him with a cut toe and causing him to stumble badly before correcting himself.
To gasps from the Bird’s Nest crowd in Beijing, Farah relaunched himself to finish second behind Ethiopian winner Yomif Kejelcha, the world’s fastest performer this year, who timed 13 minutes, 19.38 seconds in the hot morning sun.
Photo: AFP
Another Ethiopian, Hagos Gebrhiwet, won the first heat, clocking 13:45.00 to set up a mouth-watering clash in the final scheduled for 1130GMT on Saturday.
“It felt all right. I nearly went down — again,” Farah laughed in reference to stumbling also in the 10,000m final. “I hope it doesn’t come a third time, that would be bad luck. Somebody just caught my legs. It’s the way I run, I’ve got long strides so I don’t blame anybody. It just happens. That’s why sometimes I just have to be at the front or the back or stay on the outside.”
The Somalia-born 32-year-old said that victories in the heptathlon and men’s long jump by Great Britain teammates Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford had not only eased the pressure on him, but also highlighted an “amazing team spirit.”
Photo: AFP
“It brings back ‘super Saturday’ with myself, Jess, Greg,” he said, referring to the first night of action at the 2012 London Olympics when all three won gold.
Victory for Farah on Saturday would signify an unprecedented seventh successive win in the 5,000 or 10,000m at a world championships or Olympics stretching back to 2011.
However, Farah said that he would take nothing for granted given the strong field.
Photo: AFP
“You might be the favorite, but anything can happen,” he said.
“I think there are three or four guys who are capable. Three Ethiopians and two Kenyans in the final — I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The third Ethiopian will be the experienced Imane Merga. Also progressing to the 15-man final will be Farah’s training partner Galen Rupp of the US.
The Kenyans comprise Caleb Ndiku, Isiah Koech and Edwin Soi, while there are two other Kenyan-born runners in the field representing new countries of allegiance — Bahrain’s Albert Rop and Turkey’s Ali Kaya.
There will be another Briton in Tom Farrell, while Ryan Hill and Ben True make up the trio of Americans to complete the final line-up alongside Germany’s Richard Ringer and Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s Julius Yego won world javelin gold with the third-longest throw of all time.
Yego’s monster third-round effort of 92.72m was the longest since Jan Zelezny threw 92.8 in 2001. The Czech also holds the world record of 98.48m, set in 1996.
Egyptian Ihab Abdelrahman El Sayed claimed silver with 88.99m for his country’s first-ever athletics world medal.
Finland’s Tero Pitkamaki, 2007 champion and silver medalist in Moscow in 2013, took bronze (87.64).
Defending champion Vitezslav Vesely of the Czech Republic could only finish eighth with a best of 83.13m.
In other events, Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic retained her 400m hurdles title with a convincing victory.
Hejnova clocked the fastest time in the world this year, 53.5 seconds, to take gold.
Americans Shamier Little and Cassandra Tate completed the podium, winning silver and bronze respectively in 53.94 and 54.02 seconds.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was