Coleman claims victory in Doha ahead of USA team-mate Gatlin and Canada's De Grasse; GB's Hughes sixth; Asher-Smith through to women's 100m semis
Sunday 29 September 2019 16:19, UK
Christian Coleman secured the gold medal for the USA in the World Athletics Championships men's 100m final in a time of 9.76 seconds in Doha.
Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes finished sixth with a time of 10.03s.
Thirty-seven-year-old American Justin Gatlin took the silver medal in 9.89s, and Canada's Andre De Grasse won bronze with 9.90s.
Coleman's dominant run was the sixth fastest 100m sprint of all time, with five of the field also running sub-10 second times.
Hughes, who had an outside shot at a medal, says his focus is now on the 200m final after he came up short in the showpiece event in Qatar.
"It wasn't the best race for me tonight but hey, congrats to the medallists, all the best to them," he said.
"Those things happen. You have to be strong minded. I am disappointed but I cannot give up on myself, I still have the 200m to come. My body just wasn't feeling up for it."
"I won't say I'm the new Usain Bolt, I'm the new Christian Coleman," he told Sky Sports News after the race.
"It's an incredible feeling to come out here and add my name to a list of legendary guys and world champions. Now I can say that I am one of them.
"This is something I have been dedicating my life to for the last couple of years. It's humbling, I'm so grateful to be here.
"This is something nobody can take away from me. I'm a world champion. That's a crazy feeling."
Dina Asher-Smith eased into the women's 100m semi-finals, as Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce let her know just how fast she needs to run to take gold.
Great Britain's European champion ran 10.96s to win her heat and safely progress to Sunday's semi-finals.
Asher-Smith was the third fastest qualifier on Saturday and remained on course in her bid to win medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
But double Olympic champion Fraser-Pryce sent out an ominous warning by running 10.80s - the fastest women's 100m heat time in World Championships history.
Jamaican Tajay Gayle upset favourite Juan Miguel Echevarria of Cuba to win gold in the long jump on Saturday with the biggest leap of the season.
The 23-year-old sped down the runway at high speed, leaping into the air to claim a distance of 8.69m on his fourth attempt, recording a personal best and beating his Cuban rival's 8.65m season's best.
Jeff Henderson of the USA, the 2016 Olympic champion, finished second with a jump of 8.39m, his longest effort of the year.
Sifan Hassan produced a stunning final lap to win the women's 10,000m, an event she only ran for the first time in May.
The Dutchwoman overtook Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey just before the bell and powered away over the last lap to win in a season's best time of 30 minutes 17.63s. Gidey was second and Kenya's Agnes Tirop third.
It was another display of the 26-year-old's remarkable versatility as she claimed the first world title of her career.
DeAnna Price won the women's hammer on Saturday to become the first US athlete to claim the title.
Price, who led qualifying with 73.77m, threw 77.54m with her third attempt as she took advantage of the absence of four-times world champion Anita Wlodarczyk, who was sidelined with injury.
Joana Fiodorow was second with a personal best of 76.35m and China's Wang Zheng took bronze with 74.76m.
The King is dead, long live the new King... Usain Bolt is no longer the defending 100m world champion. His crown has passed to American Christian Coleman. However, I felt slightly underwhelmed by the men's 100m final.
Let me explain: every major 100m final I have watched throughout my career was played out in front of a large crowd and that's part of it. The buzz from the fans, their noise and silence. Yet at just after 10.15pm, I felt no goosebumps that would normally indicate I was watching something special. It felt a bit flat and that does the athletes lining up a disservice, as they've trained all year for this and, as the statistics show us, they are the best in the world.
There are arguments over whether we should rejoice at Coleman winning when he may well have been serving a suspension for missing three doping tests in a year - or for Justin Gatlin's silver, given he has previously been found guilty and banned from competing due to doping. Well, those debates will continue.
Dina Asher-Smith's attempt to become the first British athlete to win three medals at a World Championships began serenely. She appeared to barely break sweat running sub-11 seconds to qualify for Sunday's 100m semi-finals and hopefully final. She still looked utterly determined after the race, not speaking too much. I think you would describe her as focused!
Away from the action, the heat and humidity remain a talking point. I've been in Doha six days now and the views, negative and positive, just keep coming. Twenty-eight of the 68 female marathon runners did not finish the course in the early hours and 30 received a medical check as a precaution, while we were told that several stayed beyond a mere check-up and one runner was taken to hospital, but later released.
This has happened before, most notably at the 1991 Tokyo World Championships where conditions were comparable to Doha, and that begs a question about next year's Olympic Games - which are of course in Tokyo. The weather in July and August in Tokyo is generally steaming hot, so once again good luck to all endurance athletes!
Yet the Khalifa Stadium and its air conditioning system is pleasing many of the athletes when they compete. Not too cold, not too hot, just right. Where have we heard that story before? I'd love to try and find out - and will endeavour to do so before I leave Doha - just how much energy is required to power the air conditioning...
Finally, just back to the crowd again - or perhaps the lack of one. Maybe that's a bit harsh, there were thousands inside, but Doha's inability to attract a full stadium is alarming, especially on a night where the men's 100m final took place. One well-respected athletics journalist who shall remain nameless just shook his head and said to me "it's not athletics - look at London two years ago. It's Doha. Why Doha at this time of year?"
