T&T's Jereem "The Dream" Richards was a disappointing seventh in the men's 200 metres at the IAAF Diamond League Memorial Van Damme athletics event in Brussels, Belgium on Friday.
The local sprinter, running in lane eight, clocked a slow time of 20.53 seconds in a race won by American sprint star Noah Lyles, cementing himself as a favourite for the World Championships in three weeks in
"What a chaotic race it was. Nearly everything that could happen, happened. But I'm glad I could handle this. That is where I train my mind and body, for every day. Now I could experience that this is worth the work. It gives me even more confidence for the World Championship. There I've to run my personal best to get the gold," said Lyles after the dash.
According to the IAAF website, before last week’s IAAF Diamond League final in Zurich, no man had ever won Diamond League titles at 100m and 200m. Lyles ended that by winning the 100m crown last week, adding it to his 200m titles from 2017 and 2018. And now he is the first man to win both sprint titles in the same season.
As the field came off the bend, world champion Ramil Guliyev in lane five held a narrow lead over Lyles in lane seven with Andre De Grasse close behind in lane six. Lyles kept his cool, though, and pulled away in the closing stages, as is his trademark.
Lyles won in 19.76 with Guliyev taking second place just ahead of De Grasse, 19.86 to 19.87, both recording the second-fastest times of their respective careers.
Finishing ahead of Richards, who was way off his season's best of 20.14 which he clocked when he emerged 200m champion at the National Championships in July, were Canada's Aaron Brown (20.00) in fourth, Ecuador's Alex Quinonez (20.25) in fifth and Belgian Robin Vanderbemden ran a season's best 20.51 for the sixth spot.
Panamanian Alonso Edward was eighth in 28.80 while Bernardo Baloyes was disqualified.