Wayde van Niekerk struck gold in the men’s 400 metres final at London Stadium in a race devoid of Botswanan track star Isaac Makwala as day five of the IAAF World Athletics Championship concluded at London Stadium.
Makwala’s team boss and doctor made an impromptu visit to the BBC studio to insist that their athlete was ready to run having recovered from the symptoms that led to his withdrawal from the 200 metres earlier this week.
Public Health England confirmed that a NORO Virus outbreak had been contained to a hotel frequented by athletes and officials and Makwala was denied entry to the warm-up track when he arrived in hope of taking his place in the showpiece final.
Van Niekerk dominated the final with the field competing for silver and bronze claimed by Steven Gardiner and Adbalelah Haroun.
Pierre-Ambrose Bosse won gold in the men’s 800 metre final as Kyle Langford missed bronze my four hundredths of a second. The British hopeful ran an even pace before making his move for home and dipped just short having closed on those in podium places.
Eilidh Doyle, the British captain, finished third in her 400 metres hurdles heat to secure a place in the final on a night in which her teammates Bianca Williams and Dina Asher-Smith progressed to the semi-finals of the 200 metres.
“I finished strongly but I’m gutted to miss out having got so close,†said Langford.
“The fans have been amazing and I couldn’t have asked for more support. GB need some medals and my aim was to get one but it wasn’t to be today.
“I feel that I’m stamping my authority on a world class field and I’ll be aiming for gold in Tokyo. I’m fourth in the world at 21 so hopefully in years to come you’ll see me taking over like Mo Farah.â€
Steeplechase favourite Evan Jager faded on the home straight to allow Conseslus Kipruto to continue the Kenyan dominance of the discipline in a slow race.Â
Women’s javelin gold went to Barbora Spotakova of Hungary while Sam Kendricks secured men’s pole vault gold for the USA.
