Doha world athletics championships: Five things we learned on Day 2

There's a new kid in town to go along with a new event. And space for everyone.

Christian Coleman won the 100 metres ahead of his fellow American Justin Gatlin and the Canadian Andre De Grasse. AFP/Kirill Kudryavtsev

Looking for a New Toy

Amid the refrigeration of the sparsely populated but air-conditioned Khalifa International Stadium, there was innovation. We had two heats of the mixed 4x400 metres relay. This event will make its Olympic debut next year in Tokyo and it’s getting a run-out here in Doha. Sixteen teams entered the competition in which the two men and women can run in any order. They were quite rigid in the first heat. All eight teams had a man on the first leg, all deployed women on the second and third and it was an all male affair on the anchor. Dull. Dull. Dull. In the second heat, the Japanese went frilly. They put Seika Aoyama on the first leg followed by the men Kota Wakabayashi and Tomoya Tamura. Saki Takashima took the baton for the anchor with a big lead. But she was reeled in and came in last. So much for innovation.

New event, new world record.

The United States quartet of Tyrell Richard, Jessica Beard, Jasmine Blocker and Obi Igbokwe marked the advent of the mixed 4x400 metres relay by setting a world record of 3:12.42 seconds and establishing themselves as favourites for the final on day 3. “I can’t believe we broke the world record,” beamed Beard. “It was so much fun. This is my fifth world championships and there’s never been anything like this. It was just awesome. Receiving the baton from Tyrell, handing it on to Jasmine and watching Obi bring it home ... I can only imagine it on the Olympic stage.” Where there’ll be more people presumably.

Sleek operators

And so the fast boys had their evening on day two. There were three semi-finals of the men’s 100 metres. The top two from each race qualified directly for the final and the two fastest thereafter also advanced. Christian Coleman said look at me as he delivered a 9.88 second romp to win the first semi. Defending champion Justin Gatlin went in the second semi with Yohan Blake, the 2011 world champion. Andre De Grasse from Canada won it in 10.07 seconds. Blake was second in 10.09 seconds – the same as Gatlin who was placed third. The 37-year-old American had to wait until after the third semi-final before finding out that he had progressed to the final with one of the fastest “losing” times. That didn’t bode well for his title hopes.

He came. He ran. He conquered

Christian Coleman mashed up the field to win gold in 9.76 seconds. After scraping into the final, Justin Gatlin was second and Andre De Grasse collected the bronze. Coleman was a worthy winner. He claimed all three of his races over two days of competition. “I’m world champion,” he said. “Nobody can ever take that away from me.” There was barely anyone around to even try.

Facetime

Despite Christian Coleman’s coronation as the fastest lad in town, he’s not the natural replacement for Usain Bolt who won the 100 metres world title three times and capered his way to become a global icon. Coleman does not exude exuberance à la Bolt. But to be fair to him, so what. Bolt was wont to describe himself as a living legend. And it was an accurate appraisal. “To me what makes the sport great is everybody going out there and competing to the best of their abilities and everything else speaks for itself,” said Coleman after his victory. “That’s what I’ll continue to do and if people say I’m the face of the sport or put me in the category of being favourite to win, I’ll try not to focus on that. I’ll just try to be as great as an ambassador as I can be.” Christian cool man.