Rio Olympics 2016: Usain Bolt shares a joke with Andre De Grasse as he moves into 200m final, but Justin Gatlin misses out
USAIN BOLT will race the 200m final on Thursday after comfortably winning his semi-final, but there was no place for American rival Justin Gatlin as he failed to qualify.
Gatlin, who has served two doping bans, tied up late in his semi-final, only finishing third in 20.13sec and missing out on one of the eight final berths.
It was a different story for Bolt, however, who clocked a season's best of 19.78sec in the next step on his quest for an unprecedented sprint "triple triple".
"I wasn't fully surprised," Bolt said of Gatlin's elimination.
"I thought he would have made it. But I could tell in the 100m he was feeling the pain and he was slowing down.
"It's just the fact you're getting old. To double at a championship where the young guys are stepping up is really hard."
The towering Jamaican eased up a full 40 metres from the line in his semi, to advance along with Canadian Andre De Grasse, setting a national record of 19.80sec as the second automatic qualifier.
"It means I'm definitely on the right track," Bolt said.
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Bolt shares a joke with De Grasse after they both eased into the final
"I felt energetic and everything was going smooth. Hopefully I'll get a top lane tomorrow," he said, adding his preference would be lane six or seven where the bend is not perceived to be too sharp.
"It's always better for me because I'm taller."
Bolt added that he felt his own world record of 19.19sec, set when winning the 2009 world title in Berlin, could be under threat.
"I definitely think I can try for the world record, I definitely feel that," he said.
"But it's all about executing right, running the corner efficiently, then coming into the straight and just running the perfect race.
"I don't get over-confident, I'll come out and execute."
Bolt joked that De Grasse pushing him through to the finish line was "really unnecessary".
"I don't know what he was trying to do. I told him to ease up but he wanted to run to the end. He had something to prove I guess.
"But he's a young kid and he's great and he's got a lot of talent so I'm looking forward to a great talent in the finals," he said.
Bolt won a third successive 100m title on Sunday to set up his bid to repeat his haul of three gold medals in the 100, 200 and 4x100m relay at both the Beijing and London Olympics in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
Gatlin won silver behind Bolt in the 100m, but looked uncomfortable throughout his race.
Britain's Adam Gemili qualified as a fastest loser after finishing third behind Bolt and De Grasse.