American Fred Kerley fails to defend 100-meter world championship gold, drops F-bomb on TV after losing in semis

Reigning men's 100-meter world champion Fred Kerley was unable to defend his title after a shocking third-place result in his semifinal heat at the World Athletics championships Sunday in Budapest, Hungary.

The American was in the third of three semifinals and did not look like himself, seemingly unable to reach and maintain the top speed we've gotten used to seeing from him in recent years.

Rising young star Oblique Seville of Jamaica won the heat in 9.90 seconds, with Botswana's Letsile Tebogo second in 9.98. Kerley's time was 10.02 seconds.

The top two finishers in each heat automatically moved onto the final plus the next two fastest times overall; Kerley missed out on one of those two spots by one hundredth of a second.

Immediately after the race Kerley crouched down, a look of disappointment on his face. He initially seemed uninterested in talking to NBC Sports or anyone, but Lewis Johnson talked him back to the mix zone. Always a man of few words, Kerley said several times that he is still healthy so "that's all that matters" and dropped the F-bomb, which led to Johnson apologizing to the live audience.

Watching a replay of the race and asked to critique what happened, Kerley said, "I think everything was good. I'm blessed, I'm healthy, and hey, they got the better of me. ... I should have been there but I [expletive] up. Life move on."

On the plus side for the U.S. team, Noah Lyles won gold in the 100 final later in the day, extending a streak of American men winning the 100 title at four straight world championships.

Lyles, who has been saying for weeks that his goal is to win both the 100 and 200 at worlds, won the 100 with a lifetime best of 9.83. He's the two-time defending world champion in the 200 and is trying to become the first man to win the 100-200 double at a major championship since Usain Bolt at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Marcell Jacobs, the Italian who stunned the track and field world with his 100m gold medal in Tokyo two years ago, continued his string of disappointing results, running 10.05 seconds in his semifinal and also not moving on to the final.

In Sunday's morning session in Budapest, American Sha'Carri Richardson posted the fastest time in the women's 100 opening round at 10.92 seconds. Poland's Ewa Swoboda ran in 10.98 seconds and current NCAA champion Julien Alfred, running for her native St. Lucia, came in at 10.99 seconds. Defending world and Olympic champion Shelley-Ann Fraser Pryce of Jamaica (11.01) as well as Americans Brittany Brown (11.01) and Tamari Davis (11.06) also moved on.