Buggy collision delays start of men’s 200m world championship semi-finals | World Athletics Championships

Some of the world’s best sprinters have been involved in a bizarre collision between two golf buggies at the world championships in Budapest, delaying the start of the men’s 200m semi-finals and leaving one athlete apparently in distress.

The shunt was severe enough to knock one of the drivers out of the buggy, while the Jamaican sprinter Andrew Hudson was seen rubbing his eye in pain.

The incident, which occurred as the athletes were being brought from the warm-up track to the stadium, led World Athletics to push the second and third semi-finals ahead of the first.

US sprinter Noah Lyles, who won the 100m final on Sunday, was in one vehicle when the crash happened but appeared to be fine. He won the rescheduled race in a time of 19.76sec. Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, bronze medallist in the shorter sprint, also qualified comfortably behind Erriyon Knighton for Friday’s final.

“You had one job,” said the BBC’s Michael Johnson on commentary, as he voiced his surprise that the crash had occurred.

World Athletics have been approached for comment.

Earlier in the evening Daryll Neita ran a personal best to qualify for the women’s 200m final. The Briton’s time of 22.21sec qualified her second behind Julien Alfred.

Dina Asher-Smith ran 22.28 in her heat as she finished second behind the American Gabby Thomas in 21.97. “I could see Gabby and I was thinking: ‘Are we going to hunt?’ but I thought I was clear so let’s just complete this, stay relaxed and leave it for tomorrow,” Asher-Smith said.

Afterwards Neita insisted she had the talent to get an unlikely medal, adding: “Why the hell not? People think I’m crazy. But we should all be here wanting to get medals and to win. I feel like that’s the mindset we need. Even if we come up short, at least we came here with that intention.”