(Budapest) Sha’Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles began their quest for a second gold medal at the World Championships in Athletics by easily winning their heat in the 200-metre preliminaries on Wednesday.

Richardson clocked 22.16 seconds and Lyles 20.05. The two American stars were back in action after giving the United States their first 100m sweep since 2017, when Justin Gatlin and Tori Bowie won in London.

Canadian Andre De Grasse, reigning Olympic champion in the 200 meters, also made it through the preliminaries. De Grasse finished second in her heat with a time of 20.28, the 12th best in the preliminaries.

His compatriots Aaron Brown (20.08) and Brendon Rodney (20.14) also made it through the preliminaries.

The reigning Olympic and world champion in the 800 meters, the American Athing Mu, who was unsure of competing at the Worlds, easily won her heat of the preliminaries. Canadian Jazz Shukla was among the runners selected for the semi-finals.

The preliminaries for the women’s 5,000 meters had been postponed from the morning session to the evening session due to the heat. The mercury hovered around 32 degrees Celsius at noon, with 55% humidity, for a felt heat of 34.

Four gold medals were at stake in the evening: in the women’s pole vault, the men’s 1500 meters, the women’s 400 meters and the men’s 400 meters hurdles.