Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and Zharnel Hughes reach 200m final
Last Updated: 26/08/15 6:12pm
Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and British hope Zharnel Hughes had little trouble in qualifying for the final of the 200m at the World Championships in Beijing.
Bolt, who is looking to complete a third 100-200m double in the world championships, eased to victory in his semi-final in 19.95s but again saw his American rival set the fastest time of the session.
Gatlin, who finished second behind the Jamaican in the 100, clocked 19.87s and appeared to be in cruise control for much of the last 50m.
The first of the three semis was taken by Hughes, who reached his first international senior final with a run of 20.14s and is expecting improvement on Thursday.
"It was great," the Anguilla-born sprinter said. "I just went out, executed my race and tried to stay relaxed and get through the finishing line and I did that.
"I was starting to strut out a bit, you could see and I could see [Nickel] Ashmeade coming across on the inside. You won't be seeing that tomorrow."
There was frustration for Britain's Eilidh Child as the reigning European champion finished sixth in the 400m hurdles final, won by Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic.
"Sixth in the world is a great achievement but I felt I let myself down a bit," she told the BBC. "I felt I could have got a medal. I am going to take this motivation and hopefully do something at the Olympics next year."
History was made in the final of the men's javelin as Julius Yego became the first Kenyan winner of the event.
Yego, who learned how to throw a javelin on YouTube, broke the Commonwealth record with his throw of 92.72m in the third round.
There was a more traditional Kenyan success when Hyvin Kyeng Jepkemoi came with a flying finish to win the women's 3,000m steeplechase.
Jepkemoi dropped back to third after a slow jump at the last water obstacle but stormed down the outside to beat Tunisia's Habiba Ghribi and Gesa-Felicitas Krause of Germany.
And there was a shock winner of the men's 400m with South Africa's Wayde van Niekerk smashing his personal best in claiming the title.
Van Niekerk's winning time of 43.48s was nearly half a second quicker than his previous best and the fourth fastest time in history, three-tenths behind Michael Johnson's world record which has stood since 1999. He had to be stretchered off track with apparent exhaustion after the race.
Reigning champion LaShawn Merritt claimed silver for the United States and 2011 winner Kirani James of Grenada finished third. Britain's Rabah Yousif was way off the pace early and could only manage sixth in 44.68s.
