The Albany Gazette - What they said at the World Athletics Championships

AFP Sport picks out the best quotes from winners and losers during the championships:

"It is a great feeling to know I did something not a lot of people have done. I wanted to show I am different. Today I came out and showed it." -- Noah Lyles after completing a rare sprint double to confirm the 26-year-old American is the heir to Usain Bolt after several have tried and failed.

"I battled my way out of hospital, and I battled my way out of school." -- Lyles on the fighting spirit instilled in him when as a boy a serious cough often led to him being taken to hospital and then dyslexia meant he struggled at school.

"The support from my coach, to my family, to supporters, to the haters -- all of them motivated me and helped me prevail." -- Abrasive US sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson did not use her 100m win to make peace with those who have criticised her.

"My talent is beyond measure." -- Richardson after winning bronze behind Jamaican Shericka Jackson in the 200m.

"My coach once said to me you have to learn how cynical the world is in this young age. I'm not naive anymore and I know how people are going to talk." -- Karsten Warholm showing he has as much sense as talent after Norway's world record holder added to his legend in regaining his 400m hurdles title.

"Yesterday was my mum's birthday so my mum got a silver medal for her birthday -- so now she has a son who is a silver medallist." -- Kyron McMaster who had said if he finished fourth in a third major final after the Tokyo Olympics and 2019 world championships, he would steal a medal. He did not have to as he secured silver for the British Virgin Islands in the men's 400m hurdles.

"I was just staring at the back of her legs thinking 'Don't let her get away'. I can't take it in, it's making me emotional. It's been so hard in the last few years but now it seems like it was all worth it." -- Tearful British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson after succeeding in not letting US rival Anna Hall get more than three seconds ahead of her in the final event, the 800m, so she could land the gold medal and put years of injury misery behind her.

"I am keeping my smile but it is really hard. I am very disappointed. I just had a bad moment. I think I got pushed by the Ethiopian." -- Sifan Hassan after the Ethiopia-born Dutch runner dramatically fell to the track metres from the finish of the 10,000m. Far from being pushed by eventual champion Gudaf Tsegay, Hassan had in fact elbowed her twice in the home straight.

"For me this is the be all and end all. You saw about 16 years of emotion at the end there. You just watched a kid achieve a dream that he has been having for a very long time." -- Josh Kerr after he succeeded clubmate Jake Wightman as 1500m world champion and like his compatriot last year dashed favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen's dreams of the title.

"I don't know if I have a fairy godmother or something." -- Laulauga Tausaga after she upset the odds in winning the women's discus, improving her personal best by over four metres and denying her teammate and Olympic champion Valarie Allman gold.

"My grandfather comes from Hungary and everyone asks if I know any Hungarian words but the only thing I know is 'egeszsegedre', which means 'cheers' for the beers. This is the most important word and I'm going to need it a few times tonight because I will have a few beers." -- USA's two-time shot put world champion Joe Kovacs on how he planned to soak up the disappointment of taking bronze behind compatriot Ryan Crouser.

"Like the best tennis player in the world, Carlos Alcaraz -- who is from my place, Murcia -- says: 'Heart and balls.' This is how it is." -- Mohamed Katir of Spain before he came so close to winning the gold medal in the 5000m only to be thwarted by Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

"There are no plans yet for the wedding. Maybe we will decide only two days in advance. We like to do random things. At the Paris Olympics maybe we will start as the Cerny family -- maybe in the new event, the race walk relay." -- Slovakian walker Dominik Cerny, who proposed to his girlfriend and fellow walker two days before he finished 19th in the 35km event.

(L.Kaufmann--BBZ)