100 m World Championships London: Gatlin dominates, Bolt has to fight

Yesterday's preliminaries over 100 m at the World Championships in London have identified some favorites and set some question marks. Of course, the duel between the constantly 2nd placed American Justin Gatlin and the Jamaican and crowd favorite Usain Bolt must also be considered at this World Championships. But some talents could surprise.

In the first of the six pre-runners, the young American Christian Coleman convinced with a clear victory and a time of 10.01 seconds. Coleman thus outed himself as a trophy candidate. In the second preliminary heat, Jamaican Yohan Blake disappointed with his 10.13 seconds and second place. It seemed as if he could not get up to speed. What is wrong with the second fastest man on earth? His compatriot Julian Forte, on the other hand, was really convincing in the third heat with his winning time of 9.99 seconds. In the fourth preliminary heat, China's Bingtian Su won unsurprisingly with 10.03 seconds. Everyone was looking forward to the 5th heat with the American and medal contender Justin Gatlin and he did not disappoint. He pulled away from everyone and left his pursuers clearly behind, so that he started to slow down 20 m before the finish line and still won with an impressive 10.05 seconds. Gatlin could have easily run well under 10 seconds. He still had clear reserves. The audience behaved in an unsportsmanlike manner, acknowledging Gatlin's excellent performance with a concert of whistles. Usain Bolt, on the other hand, presented himself in a completely different light. The star did his usual show and the audience cheered at his performance. But he had a hard time getting out of the starting blocks and struggled to keep up for the first 20-30 meters, 4-5 runners were ahead of him, only after about halfway he was able to turn up and leave his opponents behind. With 10.07 seconds he got the 6th and last prelim over 100m. But he seemed to have no big reserves left. He rightly shook his head, he was not satisfied with his performance and could not be. And the run was not a staged show to deceive the opponents. The sprint legend has been struggling all year. He certainly still has a tenth of air, but will it be enough for today's final?

Tonight it's only about the two semifinals, there can still happen a lot, if you think of the many disqualifications that there have already been at the local world championship because of early starts. If everything goes smoothly, Gatlin, Coleman, Forte, Su and Bolt will fight for the crown in the final. At this point, Gatlin has the lead. He could finally take the crown, which he had to leave to Bolt until now. It will be really exciting tonight. The semifinals start at 20:05 and the final is scheduled for 22:45. You can find the rest of the program in our Calendar.