Eastern Cape prospect Anaso Jobodwana touched down on planet podium last night as he powered to a share of third place in the 200m at the Bird's Nest stadium.

Inspired by teammate Wayde van Niekerk's desperate finish in the 400m the previous night, Jobodwana said he kept pushing to catch Panama's Alonso Edward on the line to split the bronze medal.

Bolt claimed his fourth straight 200m world championship crown in 19.55sec with Gatlin second in 19.74.

Behind them, Jobodwana rocketed around in 19.87 to scupper Van Niekerk's 19.94 national record.

"I was desperate," said Jobodwana. "My coach told me 'just run as desperate as Wayde looked in the 400m final'.

"I saw Alonso Edwards was in front of me a little bit and I just told myself 'I can catch him, I can catch him'," said Jobodwana.

Before the race, Bolt offered him some words of encouragement.

"We spoke in the call room and he said, 'are you ready for a 19?' And I was like 'yeah' and he said 'oh, you don't sound too confident' and I was like 'no, no, no, I'm ready to run'.

"When he saw me he was like 'congrats, '19!' Him talking to me also spurred me on," said Jobodwana, who was congratulated by Gatlin in the interview area later.

Caster Semenya was cheerful after her last-place finish in her semifinal heat, saying the 1min:59.59sec she ran in the heats the day before had taken its toll.

"We ran under two minutes in the first round, which took a little bit out of me, but we're happy, man," said Semenya, who clocked 2:03.18.

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