World Athletics Championships 2019: ‘Sore’ Christian Coleman withdraws from 200 metres

The US sprinter recorded the fastest time of the year when winning the 100m final in Doha

World 100 metres champion Christian Coleman has pulled out of the 200 metres, a day after the American won the blue riband event.

Coleman, 23, was left off the starting list for Sunday’s opening heats at the world championships and his manager Emanuel Hudson said he was still feeling the strain after his performance the previous evening.

“He is sore from yesterday and didn’t leave the stadium until after 1am,” he said in a text message to Reuters.

“Couldn’t take the strain today.”

Coleman, who controversially avoided a ban for missing three doping tests, recorded a time of 9.76 seconds to win the 100 metres final on Saturday.

“I am humble, I am just here to win titles,” Coleman said after the race. “It is an incredible time. I think the sky’s the limit, I think I still have a lot of things I can work on and improve. I think I can keep dropping my time.”

The American was expected to challenge compatriot Noah Lyles in the 200 metres, but pulled out hours before the race began.

Coleman wins the Diamond League men’s 100m final in Shanghai earlier this month (Getty)

Coleman was only informed he could compete earlier this month when the United States Anti-Doping Agency withdrew a whereabouts charge against him.

And US legend Michael Johnson has insisted that the controversy surrounding Coleman means he cannot be the face of athletics in the country.

“It completely disqualifies him, at this point, from ever being that face of the sport. This will follow him, as it should,” Johnson told BBC Sport.

“I think this is an incredibly important issue around the sport because Christian Coleman was being touted to replace Usain Bolt as the big star of the sport.

“I don’t think that will happen now as a result of this. I think that fans of athletics don’t have any tolerance at this point for any sort of doping infraction.”