Guliyev stuns the field in 200M, Makwala finishes sixth

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London, August 11: Turkey's Ramil Guliyev pulled off a shock 200M victory at the World Championships on Thursday, edging an emotional favourite Wayde van Niekerk into second place in a blanket finish.

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

South African Van Niekerk, who took the 400M title on Tuesday, had been seeking to match American Michael Johnson's achievement of doing the 200/400m double at the Gothenburg worlds in 1995, 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 initially saw him barred from competing this week, started strongly but faded to sixth.

In the absence of Usain Bolt, who had won the event in the last four championships, it always looked a wide open race, but even with the most level playing field for a decade, few were looking at lane five for the likely winner.