By Lori Ewing
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – American Noah Lyles continued his quest for double sprint gold at the World Athletics Championships, cruising into the men’s 200 metres final despite a freak cart crash that delayed the start of his race.
Four days after winning the 100 metres, Lyles, twice world 200m champion, ran 19.76 seconds to record the fastest time in Thursday’s semi-finals.
Lyles’ heat was delayed by 30 minutes after the golf cart transporting him and the other runners from the warmup track to the stadium crashed into another cart.
Heats two and three were run before the first heat as Jamaican Andrew Hudson received medical treatment for what the World Athletics radio broadcast said was something in his eye.
American Kennie Bednarek, the Olympic silver medallist, ran 19.96 for the second fastest time and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, silver medallist in the 100 in Budapest, was third quickest in 19.97.
The 26-year-old Lyles is seeking to become the first man to win the sprint double since Usain Bolt in 2015.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing, editing by Ed Osmond)
