The men's 200 metres at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Daegu Stadium on September 2 and September 3. The winning margin was 0.30 seconds. Usain Bolt, the world record holder and defending champion was the favourite going into the race with a world leading time of 19.86 seconds. He had also won his three major races after return from injury convincingly.

Remembering his false start in the 100 metres, favorite Bolt had the slowest reaction time to the gun, but cruised easily into the semi-finals.

The semi-finals began with another false start, but it was Sandro Viana. Christophe Lemaitre led the qualifying winning semi 1, as Bolt casually cruised through semi 2 and Walter Dix ran a controlled semi 3.

The finals were Bolt's redemption. Still cautious, Bolt had the slowest reaction time in the field, but he easily charged into the lead, making up the stagger on Dix 2/3 of the way through the turn as returning silver medalist Alonso Edward pulled up. Bolt made one glance back at Dix and the rest of the field, then charged home in 19.40 his third best time, the number four time ever. Dix was clearly second in 19.70, with Christophe Lemaitre separating from Jaysuma Saidy Ndure in 19.80, the French National Record for the bronze medal. The rest of the field was more than 3/10ths of a second behind. Note these were Fully automatic times, it was just a fluke that all the medal times were evenly divisible by a tenth of a second.

Medalists GoldSilverBronzeUsain BoltWalter DixChristophe Lemaitre

Records Prior to the competition, the men's 200 m records were as follows:

World record19.19Berlin, Germany20 August 2009Championship recordWorld leading19.86Oslo, Norway9 June 2011African record19.68Atlanta, United States1 August 1996Asian Record20.03Yokohama, Japan7 June 2003North, Central American and Caribbean record19.19Berlin, Germany20 August 2009South American record19.81Berlin, Germany20 August 2009European record19.72Mexico City, Mexico12 September 1979Oceanian record20.06Mexico City, Mexico16 October 1968

Qualification standards

A timeB time 20.60 20.70

schedule Date Time RoundSeptember 2, 2011 11:10 HeatsSeptember 2, 2011 19:55 SemifinalsSeptember 3, 2011 21:20 Final

Results KEY:qFastest non-qualifiersQQualifiedNRNational recordPBPersonal bestSBSeasonal best

Heats Qualification: First 3 in each heat (Q) and the next 3 fastest (q) advance to the semifinals.

Wind:Heat 1: +0.3 m/s, Heat 2: -0.3 m/s, Heat 3: -1.1 m/s, Heat 4: -1.1 m/s, Heat 5: -0.8 m/s, Heat 6: +0.4 m/s, Heat 7: -0.7 m/s Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 2 Usain Bolt 20.30 Q 2 1 Walter Dix 20.42 Q 3 1 Amr Ibrahim Mostafa Seoud 20.44 Q, SB 4 2 Michael Mathieu 20.46 Q 5 5 Nickel Ashmeade 20.47 Q 6 4 Christophe Lemaitre 20.51 Q 7 1 Kim Collins 20.52 Q, SB 8 1 Femi Seun Ogunode 20.54 q 9 6 Alonso Edward 20.55 Q 10 5 Sandro Viana 20.62 Q 11 2 Pavel Maslák 20.63 Q, PB 11 6 Bruno de Barros 20.63 Q 13 3 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 20.65 Q 14 2 Christian Malcolm 20.66 q 15 7 Rondel Sorrillo 20.68 Q 15 7 Mario Forsythe 20.68 Q 17 2 Churandy Martina 20.70 q 18 2 Bryan Barnett 20.75 19 7 Michael Herrera 20.76 Q 20 6 Reto Schenkel 20.77 Q 21 3 Darvis Patton 20.80 Q 21 5 Hitoshi Saito 20.80 Q 23 1 Marc Schneeberger 20.81 24 5 James Ellington 20.82 25 6 Jared Connaughton 20.83 26 3 Jonathan Åstrand 20.87 Q 26 4 Shinji Takahira 20.87 Q 26 7 Daniel Grueso 20.87 29 7 Marek Niit 20.90 30 5 Jeremy Dodson 20.92 31 7 Nilson André 20.93 32 1 Sebastian Ernst 20.95 33 2 Emmanuel Callander 20.97 33 6 Ben Youssef Meité 20.97 35 3 Paul Hession 21.02 36 4 Mosito Lehata 21.03 Q 37 6 Thuso Mpuang 21.07 38 4 Lebogang Moeng 21.09 38 4 Marvin Anderson 21.09 40 7 Arnaldo Abrantes 21.10 41 5 Gabriel Mvumvure 21.11 42 5 Calvin Dascent 21.15 43 3 Brijesh Lawrence 21.16 44 3 Rolando Palacios 21.22 45 4 Alex Wilson 21.25 46 3 Yuichi Kobayashi 21.27 47 1 Sibusiso Matsenjwa 21.29 PB 48 6 Omar Jouma Al-Salfa 21.45 49 7 Holder da Silva 21.82 SB 50 4 Leeroy Henriette 21.83 51 1 Roudy Monrose 22.18 52 6 Luka Rakić 22.73 53 3 Khalilur Rahman 23.53 4 Brendan Christian

Semifinals Qualification: First 2 in each heat (Q) and the next 2 fastest (q) advance to the final.

Wind:Heat 1: -1.0 m/s, Heat 2: -1.0 m/s, Heat 3: -0.7 m/s Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 1 Christophe Lemaitre 20.17 Q, SB 2 2 Usain Bolt 20.31 Q 3 1 Nickel Ashmeade 20.32 Q 4 3 Walter Dix 20.37 Q 5 2 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 20.50 Q 6 3 Alonso Edward 20.52 Q 7 2 Bruno de Barros 20.54 q 8 2 Rondel Sorrillo 20.56 q 9 1 Femi Seun Ogunode 20.58 10 3 Mario Forsythe 20.63 11 1 Kim Collins 20.64 12 2 Darvis Patton 20.72 13 3 Michael Herrera 20.75 14 1 Pavel Maslák 20.87 15 3 Christian Malcolm 20.88 16 3 Shinji Takahira 20.90 17 3 Jonathan Åstrand 21.03 18 3 Amr Ibrahim Mostafa Seoud 21.15 19 2 Hitoshi Saito 21.17 20 2 Reto Schenkel 21.18 1 Michael Mathieu 1 Sandro Viana R 162.7 1 Mosito Lehata 2 Churandy Martina

Final Wind: +0.8 m/s Rank Lane Name Nationality Time Notes 3 Usain Bolt 19.40 WL 4 Walter Dix 19.70 SB 6 Christophe Lemaitre 19.80 NR 4 8 Jaysuma Saidy Ndure 19.95 SB 5 5 Nickel Ashmeade 20.29 6 2 Bruno de Barros 20.31 7 1 Rondel Sorrillo 20.34 7 Alonso Edward

References

External links 200 metres results at IAAF website