Photo: Defending champion Usain Bolt (9.96s) gets the better of Mike Rodgers (9.97s) in heat 7 of the Men’s 100m at the World Championships in Beijing, China. (Getty Images)
The evening session got underway with the Heptathlon Shot Put . Jamaica’s Salcia Slack continued to struggle and only managed a distance of 13.53m for 15th spot. She rounded out the evening with season’s best height of 1.62m in the high jump and a time of 24.73s in the 200m to close the day in 28th position with 3415 points. The lead is being held by Great Britain’s Ennis-Hill with 4005 pionts ahead of teammate Johnson-Thompson with 3925 points and Nadine Vesser of Netherlands in third with 3871 points.
The 400m Hurdles for men saw Roxroy Cato running in a tough first heat. He finished a disappointing sixth in a time of 49.47 behind Kenya’s Nicholas Bett in 48.37s. Leford Green who came off the final turn even with his competitors, faded down the stretch to finish 5th in heat two in a time of 49.33s. His time was good enough to see him advance as one of the fastest losers. Annsert Whyte went one better in heat three, crossing the line in 49.10s to qualify automatically to the semifinal.
The world leader and pre-race favorite Bershawn Jackson fell by the wayside after finishing a disappointing 7th in pedestrian 50.14 in the third heat. He too faded down the stretch in a race that he seemed to have in the bag. The defending champion from Trinidad and Tobago Jehue Gordon was extremely poor and also failed to advance from his heat.
Whyte will run from lane 8 in semifinal heat 1, while Green goes off in heat 3, out of lane 3. The top two from each heat and two fastest looser will advance to the final
The anxiously awaited men’s 100m saw most of the big guns advancing to the semifinals. Asafa Powell got things rolling as he won heat one in a rather composed 9.95s against a -0.1 wind.
Ashmeade was however made to work hard in heat two as American Tyson Gay won that race in 10.11s, with Ashmeade second in 10.19. Defending champion Usain Bolt won his heat in 9.96s running into a – 0.2mps wind.
Other heat winners came via world leader and fastest qualifier Justin Gatlin who won heat 6 in 9.83s with a +2.1mps wind. Young Trayvon Brommell of the USA won heat 4 in 9.91 seconds. Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut running with a heavily strapped right knee won heat five in 9.95s, while Qatar’s Femi Ogunode secured heat 3 in 9.99s.
The line up for the semifinals, which comes up 6:10 local time Sunday morning, sees Powell running from lane 6, matching strides with Vicuat and Gay in semifinal one.
Ashmeade drawn in lane 8 will run off in a tough semifinal two, against Gatlin, Ogunode, and Mike Rogers. Bolt will run from lane 7 in the third semifinal, against Brommell, Andre Degrasse of Canada and China’s Bingtu Su.
The final is scheduled for 8:10 local time.
Jamaica fortunes were positive in the field as both athletes in the women’s triple jump advanced to the finals.
Kimberly Williams cut the sand at 14.23m, for fifth best, while debutant Shanieka Thomas 14.05m was good enough for eighth and place in the final twelve. The final is scheduled for Monday 6:30 pm local time.
Two other finals contested on evening session. Great Britain Mo Farah defended is men’s 10000m meter in 27: 01.13 seconds. Kenya’s pair of Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworo ,27:01.76 s and Paul Kipngetich Taui ,27:02.83s were 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The women’s shot put was won by Germany’s Christina Schwartz with a throw of 20.30, ahead of Lijiao Gong of China 20.30m and USA’s Mitchelle Carter with 19.76m.
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