Athletics-Turkey's Guliyev stuns field to win 200 metres

Ramil Guliyev, representing Turkey after switching allegience from Azerbaijan, pulled off a shock 200 metres victory at the World Championships on Thursday, edging favourite Wayde van Niekerk into second place in a blanket finish.

The 27-year-old Guliyev, who had never won a medal in a senior global event, finished just the stronger to triumph in 20.09 seconds before setting off on a lap of honour carrying the flags of both his nations.

South African Van Niekerk, who took the 400m title on Tuesday, had been seeking to match American Michael Johnson's achievment of doing the 200/400m double but had to settle for silver in 20.11 seconds.

Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago was given the same time but was relegated to third by one thousandth of a second.

Isaac Makwala of Botswana, the crowd favourite after his illness travails this week, started strongly but faded to sixth.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)