Noah Lyles kept alive his bid to match Usain Bolt’s record of four consecutive world 200 metres titles as he scorched to the fastest time of the year of 19.51sec in the semi-finals on Thursday.
There was Tokyo heartbreak though for Australia’s 17-year-old sensation Gout Gout, who missed out on what would have been a first senior final.
There was no let-up from Lyles in his semi, as there often is with sprinters running heats in the knowledge they’ve already qualified for the next round.
The 28-year-old American properly fired through the line at the National Stadium to better his previous world lead of 19.63sec set at the US trials.
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Lyles claimed bronze in Sunday’s 100m in Tokyo and immediately turned his attention to the 200m, which he called his “bread and butter”.
The American led home Anguilla-born Briton Zharnel Hughes, in 19.95sec.
With just the top two from the three semi-finals plus the next two fastest qualifying, a fast heat is always likely to include the latter.
And so it proved as Zimbabwe’s Tapiwa Makarawu and South African Sinesipho Dambile both progressed from Lyles’ semi with 19.97 and 19.98sec respectively.
Jamaican Bryan Levell looked comfortable in winning the second semi in 19.78sec ahead of Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo (19.95), who won in Paris last year when Lyles finished third.
Tebogo will be looking for some kind of redemption after a terrible false start in the 100m in the Japanese capital.
American Courtney Lindsey was third, just ahead of Gout (20.36), the teenager — often compared to Bolt for his age-grade progression — struggling and missing out on a qualifying place by some distance.
American Kenny Bednarek won the opening semi in 19.88sec ahead of Dominican Republic’s Alexander Ogando (19.98).
Bednarek, who finished fourth in the men’s 100m, clocked 19.67sec in following Lyles home at the US trials.
On that occasion, he shoved Lyles in the back for what he called unsportsmanlike behaviour when he stared him down over the finish line, adding some spice to Friday’s final.
Fourth in that heat was South Africa’s 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk.
But the 20.12sec timed by the 2016 Olympic 400m champion, who has been beset by injuries in the years since that triumph in Rio, was not enough to see him advance.