Yohan Blake Withdraws, No Jamaican Male Qualified For 200m Final – World Champs

On Monday night two Jamaican sprinters qualified for the 200m World Championships semi-finals: Rasheed Dwyer finishing second in heat 7 with 20.29 seconds, his season’s best, and Yohan Blake who struggled to win a spot in heat 5 for Tuesday’s semi-final race, ran 20.35 seconds.

Both of the Olympic veterans would have to outrun the Americans, who currently hold both the 100m and 200m World Athletic Championship titles, but only Dwyer competed in the semis.

Yohan Blake told reporters during an interview that coming into the heat on Monday he was hindered by something that happened during his warm-up. The Sprinter seems to have not been able to overcome whatever challenges he faced pre-race and withdrew from semi-final 1 due to a swollen foot.

The U.S’s Fred Kerley who was a favourite for the 200m finals, was not able to proceed with his sixth place time of 20.68 and seems to have been experiencing discomfort during his race.

Dwyer was unable to qualify for the finals, placing eighth in semi-final 3. America will see three of its athletes competing in the 200m finals, after Noah Lyles, Kenneth Bednarek and Erriyon Knighton qualified with a time of 19.62, 19.84 and 19.77 seconds respectively.

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