As the carts were bringing the semi-finalists to the track from the warm-up area, one cart T-boned the other. Andrew Hudson received minor injuries with broken glass getting into his eye. The first semi was moved to last in the order to give Hudson and the other athletes a chance to recover. A relaxed defending champion Noah Lyles came through as the #1 qualifier. Hudson finished fourth in the semi-final, but was granted the extra lane in the final.
In the final, the start was fairly even, with the exception of Joseph Fahnbulleh's notoriously slow start, accentuated by Hudson's fast start in lane 1 next to him. As they were beginning to exit the turn, the three Americans, Lyles, Erriyon Knighton, and Kenny Bednarek, along with Letsile Tebogo all on the outside of the tracking Zharnel Hughes, were still even. With Lyles' notorious closing speed, that was bad news for the other competitors. From there, true to form, Lyles opened a gap that continued to widen to the finish. The next two runners to gain separation were the youngsters, 19 year old Knighton, then 20 year old Tebogo. Lyles had 3 metres over Knighton at the finish. Knighton was barely a metre clear of Tebogo. Lyles' 19.52 winning time equalled the #14 time in history, tied with two previous efforts from Lyles (but he's also run faster on four other occasions). Knighton's 19.75 means he owns all of the top 12 times ever run by a U20 athlete. This World Championship title was a three-peat for Lyles and completed the second leg of his pre-meet announced plan to take three gold medals.
Records
Before the competition records were as follows:[2]
Round 1 took place on 23 August. The first 3 athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next 3 fastest ( q ) qualified for the semi-final.[4] The overall results were as follows:[5]
The semi-final took place on 24 August, with the 24 athletes involved being split into 3 heats of 8 athletes each. The first 2 athletes in each heat ( Q ) and the next 2 fastest ( q ) will qualify for the final.[6] The overall results were as follows:[7]
^"START LIST 200 Metres Men - Round 1"(PDF). International Association of Athletics Federations. 22 August 2023. Archived(PDF) from the original on 27 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
^"SUMMARY 200 Metres Men - Round 1"(PDF). International Association of Athletics Federations. 23 August 2023. Archived(PDF) from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
^"SUMMARY 200 Metres Men - Semi-final"(PDF). International Association of Athletics Federations. 24 August 2023. Archived(PDF) from the original on 24 August 2023. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
^"RESULTS 200 Metres Men - Final"(PDF). International Association of Athletics Federations. 25 August 2023. Archived(PDF) from the original on 26 August 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
