Guliyev takes surprise 200m win, Taylor defends triple jump title

The seventh competition day of the IAAF London world championships saw unheralded athletes stun big names on Thursday as the United States became the biggest winners with two one-two finishes.

Ramil Guliyev staged the most unexpected win of the night when the Turkish runner raced past the men's 200m finish line ahead of newly crowned 400m champion Wayde Van Niekerk of South Africa.

Guliyev made a decisive comeback in the final sprint to finish the race at 20.09 seconds to frustrate Van Niekerk by two hundreds of a second, bringing Turkey the first gold medal at the world championships here. Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago also finished at 20.11 and claimed bronze medal on photo finish.

"This is not a shock but this does not feel real. I am so proud. This title means a lot," said the 2007 world youth runner-up.

Isaac Makwala finished sixth in 20.44. The runner from Botswana was ill and forced to withdrawal from both the 200m heats and 400m final amid an outbreak of norovirus and was later cleared by the organizers to run an individual 200m heat on Wednesday.

According to Public Health England on Thursday, about 40 people "associated with the World Athletics Championships" have fallen ill in the confirmed outbreak of norovirus.

"PHE has been working closely with the London 2017 organisers and venues to provide infection control advice to limit the spread of illness," said the PHE in the statement.

Olympic and world champion Christian Taylor fended off strong challenge from American compatriot Will Claye to make a successful defense of the triple jump title.

Two-time Olympic champion Taylor, 27, produced a big jump in his third attempt and the 17.68-meter result eventually gave him the third world title.

Claye, 26, had changed lead with Taylor in the first three rounds in the final but the Rio and London Olympic runner-up had to settle for the silver in 17.63. Nelson Evora of Portugal bagged the bronze in 17.19.

Kori Carter clinched a surprise win in the women's 400m hurdles to edge the stars with major titles.

Carter, whose best previous result was a seventh place finish at the 2nd IAAF Continental Cup in 2014, clocked 53.07 seconds to edge compatriot and Rio Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad to the second place in 53.50. Jamaica's Ristananna Tracey took bronze in 53.74. Two-time world champion and title defender Zuzana Hejnova of Czech Republic had to settle for the fourth place in 54.20.

"When you worked so hard and sacrifice so much for something, for it to pay off in the end is satisfying," said Carter, 25, "It's a surreal experience right now. Our whole goal and focus was to get on the podium this year. It's what we've been committing to. To put it together is such a blessing."