BRITON Lynsey Sharp was left in disbelief as she went out of the women’s 800m on the opening day of the World Athletics Championships.

Sharp, ranked fourth in the world of those competing in Doha, ran out of steam in the home straight as she finished fourth in her heat.
The 29-year-old Scot’s time of two minutes 03.57 seconds was not good enough for a fastest loser’s spot.

Shelayna Oskan-Clarke and Alexandra Bell progressed to the semi-finals.
Elsewhere, Christian Coleman, defending champion Justin Gatlin and Britons Zharnel Hughes and Adam Gemili reached the men’s 100m semi-finals, but European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen was disqualified from the men’s 5 000m.

With South Africa’s Olympic and world champion Caster Semenya absent, along with fellow Rio 2016 medallists Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and Margaret Wambui of Kenya, Sharp was tipped to challenge for a medal in the women’s 800m.

Semenya is not competing in Doha after governing body IAAF introduced a rule that athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) must either take testosterone-reducing medication in order to compete in track events from 400m to the mile or change to another distance.

Despite being among the pack in the home straight, Sharp failed to find the burst of speed needed to finish in a top-three spot, which would have earned automatic qualification.
She sat on the track in shock watching the replay of the final stages of her heat.
World indoor bronze medallist Oskan-Clarke produced a brilliant sprint to take second in her heat in 2:02.09 while fellow Briton Bell, fifth at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, battled her way to third, clocking 2:03.34.

Coleman underlined his status as favourite for the men’s 100m as he cruised to victory in his heat in 9.98 seconds.
The 23-year-old American is competing in Doha after the US Anti-Doping Agency charged him with missing three drugs tests in 12 months, before withdrawing the claim. A technicality regarding the date of one of the tests resulted in the London 2017 silver medallist being free to compete.

All three Britons progressed to the semi-finals with European champion Hughes, 24, the most impressive as he recovered from a poor start to win his heat in 10.08.
Hughes, who represented Anguilla as a youth, spoke about the air-conditioning inside the stadium as he told BBC Sport: “It’s different coming from the heat to the cool inside here but I’m happy, I got through easily.

“I have to be aware of the block settings; they are different to what I am using so it wasn’t the best start. I won’t let it hamper me.”
Gemili, 25, has been hampered by a hamstring problem in recent seasons but finished third in his heat in 10.19 behind the USA’s 37-year-old Gatlin (10.16), who has twice been banned for doping offences.

British champion Ojie Edoburun squeezed into today’s semi-finals as a fastest loser having run 10.23 in the first heat.

South Africa’s Akani Simbine, fifth at the last Olympics, went through as the second fastest qualifier in 10.01 and Jamaican 2011 champion Yohan Blake is also into the semi-finals, which take place at 16:45hrs BST today with the final at 20:15hrs.