Canada's Aaron Brown DQ'd in 200m heats at track worlds
CBC Sports | Posted: August 7, 2017 6:49 PM | Last Updated: August 8, 2017
Athletics Canada's protest denied, sprinter eliminated for lane violation
Canada's nightmare continued Monday.
Aaron Brown was disqualified from the men's 200-metre event at the track and field world championships due to a lane violation.
Brown, 25, ran the race in what was a season-best 20.08 seconds, finishing first in his heat, but the transgression means he won't be in Wednesday's semifinals.
Great Britain's Nathaneel Mitchell-Blake was then awarded the heat with his identical time of 20.08.
The 25-year-old learned moments later of the disqualification, for stepping on the inside line. Sprinters are disqualified if they touch a foot down once on the inside line of the bend.
Athletics Canada filed a protest, but the appeal was rejected.
Brown also fell victim to a false start in the 100 at the Canadian track nationals in July. This time around, it was a different transgression, but the same result.
"He really felt like he had figured out how to approach the championships to be able to compete at his best, and you could see that something had clicked by how fast and comfortable he looked in his heats," CBC Sports analyst Anson Henry said.
"He had a very realistic shot at being one of the people standing on the podium in London. And that's why this whole situation is even more upsetting to him."
Things have not gone well for Canada since Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse announced he would have to miss the world championships because of a hamstring injure he suffered last week.
On Saturday, Derek Drouin, the reigning world and Olympic champion in high jump, announced he was withdrawing with an Achilles tendon injury. Drouin's injury kept the 27-year-old out of the Canadian championships last month in Ottawa, and he'd been able to do little jumping off the injured foot in the weeks since.
Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago qualified with the best time of the day at 20.05 in the 200, while South African favourite Wayde van Niekerk also qualified with a time of 20.16.
Van Niekerk's biggest rival in the 200 never even made the start line. Isaac Makwala was supposed to run in Heat 5 of the first round at the world championships on Monday, but the Botswanan's spot in Lane 7 remained empty.
The IAAF says Makwala withdrew "due to a medical condition on the instruction of the IAAF medical delegate."
If Makwala had no medical reason to withdraw, he would have been ineligible to compete in Tuesday's 400 final.
Makwala is considered to be the main challenger to Olympic champion and world-record holder Wayde van Niekerk.
Van Niekerk had earlier done his part in the third heat, keeping his quest for the 200-400 double going.
Sage Watson through to 400m hurdles semis
Canadian Sage Watson had better luck than Brown, finishing second in her 400 hurdles heat with a time of 55.06, which was good enough to qualify her for Tuesday's semifinals.
"I'm happy with it. Now the goal is the final," Watson told CBC Sports.
"I need to run my best and qualify [for the final] and represent Canada well."
American Dalilah Muhammad won the heat with a time of 54.59.
Watson finished 11th at the 2016 Olympics in the event, with a time of 55.44. Her personal best in then event is 54.52, which she ran in 2016 before the Olympics.
The 23-year-old from Medicine Hat, Alta., who won the NCAA title for the Arizona Wildcats, said there were some things she needs to clean up for the next round — she relaxed on the corner too much, and didn't come off the hurdles as smooth as she would've liked over the final 100 metres.
A few small fixes, and she believes she's "ready to do something special," she said.
Special, she said, would be making the final and breaking the Canadian record of 54.39, set by Rosey Edeh (now a Canadian television personality) at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Canada's second runner competing in the 400 hurdles didn't fare as well.
Noelle Montcalm finished last in her heat with a time of 57.45.
"I couldn't find a rhythm," Montcalm said. "Hurdling is rhythm so when you're not on it, it's hard to find in the middle of a race even if your speed is there. I just didn't feel it today."
Kenya's Kipyegon wins1500
Faith Kipyegon of Kenya added the world title to her Olympic gold medal in the 1,500, beating Jenny Simpson of the United States.
Taking command in the final straight, Kipyegon finished in four minutes, 2.59 seconds, .16 seconds over the hard-charging Simpson.
Caster Semenya of South Africa took bronze in 4:02.90.
Poland keeps hammer throw title
Poland's Anita Wlodarczyk continued her hammer throw domination, winning her third consecutive world title.
Wlodarczyk won with a throw of 77.90 metres, almost two full metres better than silver medallist Wang Zheng of China.
Jamaica's McLeod takes gold in 110m hurdles
Olympic champion Omar McLeod finally gave Jamaica its first gold of the world championships, winning the 110m hurdles ahead of defending champion Sergey Shubenkov of Russia.
McLeod ran a near clean race over the hurdles and even had to time to stretch out his arms as he raced across the line in 13.04 seconds, .10 seconds ahead of Shubenkov.
Balazs Baji of Hungary took bronze in 13.28 and pre-race favourite Aries Merritt of the United States finished fifth.
Royas gives Venezuela 1st gold
In an exciting triple jump final, 21-year-old Yulimar Rojas edged Olympic champion Caterine Ibarguen by two centimetres for gold.
Royas won Venezuela's first-ever world title with a mark of 14.91 metres on her penultimate attempt, beating the defending champion's earlier mark of 14.89.
Olga Rypakova, the 2012 Olympic champion, took bronze with a jump of 14.77 metres.