BEIJING, China (CMC) – Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell led a quintet of Caribbean qualifiers into the men’s 100 metres semi-finals at the IAAF World Championships here yesterday.
While Bolt won heat seven in a time of 9.96 seconds, Powell captured the opening heat in 9.95 seconds to advance to today’s elimination stage of the much anticipated event of the championships.
Their main rival and world leader American Justin Gatlin advanced as the fastest qualifier with a wind-aided 9.83 (+2.1) in heat number six.
Gatlin’s American compatriot Trayvon Bromell (9.91) won heat four and Jimmy Vicaut of France (9.92) was first home in heat five.
“It was a good run overall and I am happy with my performance,” said Bolt, the reigning World champion in both the 100 and 200 metres.
“I’m ready to go and it’s all about execution and power so I’ll be ready when it comes tomorrow and I’ll be looking forward to it.”
Joining Bolt and Powell will be Barbadians Ramon Gittens and Levi Cadogan, along with Nickel Ashmeade of Jamaica.
The Olympic and world champion Bolt knows that fast times in heats do not win gold medals, however, and was satisfied with going under 10 seconds to reach the semi-finals, which take place along with the final today.
Gittens clocked a personal-best of 10.02 to finish second behind Femi Ogunode of Qatar (9.99) in heat three while Cadogan finished fourth (10.12) in the final heat with Bolt, with America’s Mike Rodgers (9.97) and Churandy Martina of the Netherlands (10.06) as the automatic qualifiers.
Ashmeade (10.19) finished behind former world champion Tyson Gay of the United States who won heat two in a time of 10.11, with Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre (10.24) taking the third spot.
However, there were disappointments for Trinidad and Tobago’s national champion Keston Bledman, the Kittian trio of Kim Collins (10.16), Antoine Adams (10.23) and Brijesh Lawrence (10.40), Kemar Hyman of the Cayman Islands (10.32), Suriname’s Jeffrey Vanan (10.57) and Mark Anderson of Belize (10.87).
They all missed out on advancing.
Bledman suffered a groin injury halfway in his race and only managed 10.75 for the last position.
“I had a bad strain in my groin and I went Pan Am (Pan American Games) and it affected it, so I came here hurt,” said Bledman.
Collins missed out on qualification after a fifth-place finish in 10.16 with Gatlin, Aaron Brown of Canada (10.03), Henricho Bruintjies of South Africa (10.07) and Iran’s Hassan Taftian advancing from that heat.
