BEIJING - Sprint king Usain Bolt and American rival Justin Gatlin swept into the 200 metres final with consumate ease on Wednesday as they prepared to resume hostilities at the world championships.
Gatlin, a two-times doping offender looking to avenge his defeat by Bolt in last 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 Thursday's shootout. Grinning broadly as he decelerated well before the line, Olympic champion Bolt had indulged in similar kidology in the 100m before smashing Gatlin's hopes in the final. But Gatlin warned he would be ready for the final, where Bolt will be chasing his fourth successive world 200m title. "I feel confident," said Gatlin, who has shown signs of irritation at his portrayal as the pantomime villain of athletics since arriving in China. "I didn't go out there and run fast, so hopefully I'll put more energy into the finals and come out on top."
Gatlin paid tribute to world record holder Bolt, winner of an astonishing 10 of the last 11 individual Olympic and world sprint titles since shooting to fame at the 2008 Beijing Games. "He's a true competitor," said the 33-year-old Gatlin. "There are two competitors that like to compete. You've got to have that rivalry."
Bolt, 29, who shot to fame at the Bird's Nest stadium at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, agreed with Gatlin's appraisal. Almost on the undercard of the showdown between the two heavyweights, South Africa's Anaso Jobodwana clocked the third quickest in a personal best 20.01 with Panama's Alonso Edward fourth in 20.02. Nigerian-born Qatari Femi Ogunode, who himself has served a two-year doping ban, underlined his medal credentials as the Asian Games champion qualified fifth fastest in a national record 20.05.
All eyes will again be on Bolt and Gatlin on Thursday, however, after Sunday's electrifying 100m, which was billed as a battle for the soul of athletics. Allegations of widespread doping rocked athletics before the world championships but Bolt's victory over a field including four former drug cheats gave the crisis-hit sport a major lift. Bolt, who had been hampered by a pelvic problem earlier in the season, roared to victory in the 100m in 9.79 seconds, retaining his world title by just one hundredth from Gatlin, the season's fastest man.
Wayde van Niekerk lit up the Bird's Nest with a stunning 400 metres run to win a first sprint gold for South Africa and cap a night of exceptional performances at the world championships on Wednesday.
Two of those came in the men's javelin and women's 3,000 metres steeplechase where Kenyans Julius Yego and Hyvin Jepkemoi added another two gold medals to the East African powerhouse's already considerable haul. The scourge of doping returned to haunt the sport, however, when two of their compatriots were provisionally banned for failing drug tests on the eve of the championships. For once, though, the 29-year-old was not the most impressive performer on the track with that honour going to Van Niekerk. Racing against a field containing a record five sprinters who had run under 44 seconds, the 23-year-old dominated the contest from start to finish and crossed the line in 43.48 seconds. The effort of running a time that only American world record holder Michael Johnson and his compatriots Butch Reynolds and Jeremy Wariner have bettered took its toll, however.
Van Niekerk collapsed on the track at the end of the race and was taken to hospital with his "vital signs unstable", the IAAF's medical delegate said, leaving runner-up LaShawn Merritt to hail the quality of the race. "It's crazy. We're warriors. We're animals," said the American 2013 world champion, whose personal best 43.65 was good enough only for silver ahead of Olympic champion Kirani James (43.78).
Van Niekerk was discharged just before midnight local time (1600 GMT). While Van Niekerk's time was the best since 2007, you would have to go back as far as 2001 to witness a javelin flying as far as the 92.72 metres Yego managed to give Kenya its first world title in a field event.
To the diminutive Yego, who learned the javelin from watching videos on the internet after being rejected as a runner, fell the duty of reacting to the positive dope tests of his team mates Koki Manunga and Joyce Zakary. "It's a shame," he said. "I always believe we can win clean so it's a shame to them."
Jepkemoi produced a performance more typical of her nation to win the steeplechase, outsprinting favourite Habiba Ghribi of Tunisia and German Gesa Krause down the home straight to win Kenya's sixth gold in nine minutes, 19.11 seconds. Zuzana Hejnova already knew her race was won when she went over the final obstacle in the 400 metres hurdles and the Czech, who ran the year's best time of 53.50 seconds, became the first woman to successfully defend the world title in the event.
A thrilling women's pole vault contest featuring Cuba's Yarisley Silva, Brazil's Fabiana Murer and Greece's Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou kept the crowd engrossed all evening in the gaps between the other events. Silva took the title when she cleared 4.90 metres at the third attempt, leaving Murer, one of her country's best hopes of gold in athletics at next year's Rio de Janeiro Olympics, with silver and Kyriakopoulou claiming the bronze.