Christian Coleman shrugged off the controversy of his build-up to the World Championships to win the 100m final in 9.76 seconds. The pre-event favourite, who avoided a ban for three missed doping tests, finished well clear of defending champion and fellow American Justin Gatlin, who clocked 9.89 in Doha. Canada's Andre de Grasse took bronze in 9.90. Britain's European champion Zharnel Hughes was sixth in 10.03.
Although Coleman will receive generous plaudits for his display here, USA track great Michael Johnson said prior to the competition that controversy surrounding Coleman "completely disqualifies" him from being the face of the sport.
The US Anti-Doping Agency charged Coleman with missing three drugs tests in 12 months before withdrawing the claim.
"I am humble, I am just here to win titles," an elated Coleman said afterwards.
"It is an incredible time. I think the sky's the limit, I think I still have a lot of things I can work on and improve, I think I can keep dropping my time."
For the second successive day the crowd was sparse inside the Khalifa Stadium, which can hold 40,000. There has been no update as to whether the organisers have improved on sales of 50,000 tickets for the entire 10 days.
On Saturday, the stadium became more vacant as the evening wore on and only a few witnessed the spectacular light display before the men's 100m final.
No comments:
Post a Comment