Olympic champion Usain Bolt and reigning world champion Tyson Gay both cantered through the heats of the men’s 100m on the opening day of the World Athletics Championships yesterday.
The first gold of the championships went Russia’s way when Olympic champion Valeriy Borchin won the men’s 20km walk title, finishing ahead of China’s Wang Hao and Mexico’s Eder Sanchez.
With the Olympic Stadium bathed in sunshine and temperatures at a balmy 23ºC, Bolt timed 10.20 seconds to lead Jamaican compatriots Michael Frater and Asafa Powell into the quarter-finals scheduled for later yesterday.
PHOTO: EPA
Former world record holder Powell, who took bronze in the Osaka worlds in 2007, almost paid the price for easing up too early, however, eventually finishing third in 10.38 seconds.
The one shock result in the 12 heats came as the silver medalist from Osaka, Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas, failed to qualify after clocking a disappointing 10.44 seconds.
In the US camp, defending triple world sprint champion Gay cruised through in the fastest time of 10.16 seconds along with his trio of teammates — Darvis Patton, Michael Rodgers and Monzavous Edwards.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Gay complained after his heat that his ongoing groin injury had not quite healed.
“I feel OK, but my groin felt a little sore,” Gay said. “I just didn’t want to waste too much energy getting through. I just wanted to play it safe.”
Other pre-race favorites, Daniel Bailey of Antigua — Bolt’s training partner — won his heat, while Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles, fourth at the Beijing Olympics, qualified in third spot in his race.
PHOTO: EPA
Briton Dwain Chambers, the world indoor 60m silver medalist who is competing after having served a two-year doping ban, recorded the second fastest time of the morning, coming home in 10.18 seconds.
“I’m happy with the time,” Chambers said. “The aim is to get through the rounds as easily as possible without using too much energy. You don’t want to go sub-10 seconds here, that uses up too much energy and digs into your reserves. I didn’t want to have any doubt about being in the next round, so I made sure I didn’t ease up.”
Chambers said he was confident he could challenge the likes of Bolt and Gay.
“I don’t doubt it for a second or I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
In the men’s shot-put, all the main favorites qualified for the final scheduled for later yesterday.
Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland recorded the longest putt of 21.19m on his first effort, with Belarus duo Pavel Lyzhyn and Andrei Mikhnevich close behind.
The American trio of Olympic silver medalist Christian Cantwell, Adam Nelson and reigning world champion Reese Hoffa also qualified, although the latter failed to hit the minimum qualification standard of 20.30m.
Britain’s Jessica Ennis sat in pole position on 2,267 points after the first two events of the heptathlon, recording field leads of 12.93 seconds in the 100m hurdles and 1.92m in the high jump. Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska was in sixth spot on 2,016 points.
The heptathletes were later to compete in the shot put and 200m. The second day of competition today involves long jump, javelin and finally the 800m.
In the women’s 400m, American Sanya Richards struck the first blow in her bitter rivalry with Olympic and world champion Chrstine Ohuruogu, winning her heat in a conservative 51.06 seconds.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
In an unlikely Ethiopian outpost of one the most French of pastimes, four men are leaning over their petanque balls, arguing over who is winning. Petanque, the bowling game also known as boules, is more readily associated with French village squares where locals launch metal balls at a jack while enjoying an afternoon drink, but for decades, it has also been a beloved pastime for members of a club near the iconic Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It was founded in the early 20th century to cater to French railway workers, who built a line connecting Addis Ababa
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
BEAT THE HEAT: A brutal heat wave in the US has made cooling breaks standard. Dortmund’s coach said the weather could shape the destiny of the tournament Chelsea on Tuesday beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-0 to set up a FIFA Club World Cup last-16 tie against SL Benfica, who earlier defeated Bayern Munich 1-0, as furnace-link heat and the threat of thunder and lightning wreak havoc at the tournament. Elsewhere, minnows Auckland City claimed a memorable draw against Boca Juniors, while Los Angeles bowed out of the tournament with a stalemate against Flamengo. In Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored the only goal for Benfica in their Group C clash with Bayern in front of 33,287 fans, finishing first-time from a cutback by his fellow Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes in the 13th
RSS