The emergency action obviously cost him time and he finished last in 21.32secs in a heat won by Great Britain's Marlon Devonish.

Officials decided he could do the race again at the end of the morning's programme.

Brizzel, again in the outside lane and with no-one else in the race, finished in 21.19secs to miss out on a place in the second round.

It was the third embarrassing incident of the championships, which are only three days old.

Britain's Anthony Whiteman was left fuming after his 1,500metres heat on Tuesday when he had to jump over a cable before narrowly avoiding a collision with a cameraman.

Then the winner of the men's 20km walk, Spain's Francisco Fernandez, had to push aside an official who suddenly stepped out in front of him just metres from the entry to the stadium.

Ireland's team management protested that the whole race should have been re-run but this was thrown out by the Jury of Appeal.

"I am very annoyed," said the Ballymena runner, whose personal best is much faster than the times he posted in the first round.

"I went out there mentally prepared to run well. The proper outcome would have been for them to run the race again.

"Fair play to them for giving me another chance but running on your own is difficult although the crowd gave me every encouragement.

"I suppose I am lucky that I did not end up in intensive care with stitches in my head."