Young American national champion Cravont Charleston proved to be the only upset as heats for the men’s 100-metre dash closed on Saturday’s (August 19) opening day of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

It was smooth sailing in Heat 1 as Briton Zharnell Hughes stormed to a brisk 10.00 seconds flat run out of lane four, ahead of Jamaica’s Ryiem Forde (10.01s) and Seye Ogunlewe (10.07s).

Pole Dominik Kopeć also heads into tomorrow’s semi-finals as a provisional qualifier from Heat 1 with a 10.12s effort in fourth place.

Noah Lyles from Team USA produced 9.95 to win Heat 2 ahead of Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala (9.97s) and Nigeria’s Usheoritse Itsekiri (10.17s) as the automatic qualifiers.

Dutch sprinter Raphael Bouju just edged Eugene Amo-Dadzie from Great Britain by a hundredth of a second to claim the spoils of Heat 3 in 10.09s. Liberian Emmanuel Matadi claimed third in a of 10.13s out of lane nine. Charleston, fifth in 10.18s, will miss the next round having failed to qualify.

Running out of lane nine, Botswanan wunderkid Leslie Tebogo did just enough to secure victory in Heat 4 with a sporty 10.11s ahead of Australia’s Rohan Browning (10.11s) and Englishman Reece Prescod (10.14s).

Jamaican Oblique Seville sent out early warning shots with an impressive, personal-best clocking of 9.86s to best defending champion Fred Kerley, who settled for second in 9.99s in Heat 5. Swede Henrik Larsson snatched the remaining automatic qualifying spot in 10.16s for third.

Adbul Hakim Sani Brown from Japan stormed to a season’s best 10.07s to win Heat 6 ahead of Jamaican national champion Rohan Watson (10.11s), Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs from Italy (10.15s, a season’s best time) and Canada’s Brendon Rodney (10.16s), who secured a provisional qualification spot despite placing fourth.

Four qualifiers also emerged from Heat 7, which was won by South African speedster Akani Simbine in 9.97s, dipping just ahead of 2019 100m world champion Christian Coleman (9.98s), Hiroki Yanagita (10.20s) and Emanuel Archibald (10.20s).