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Gatlin reaches world semifinals in 200
Running on an extra day of rest, Justin Gatlin reached the semifinals of the 200 meters Wednesday, taking him halfway home to the second of three golds he is seeking at the world track and field championships, reported the Associated Press.
The quarterfinals were delayed by a torrential storm Tuesday, giving Gatlin a welcome break after he won the 100 late Sunday. The track was still wet and the temperature its coldest so far, but Gatlin pushed into an early lead, pumped for home and relaxed with 40 meters to go, letting Jamaica's Christopher Williams nip him at the line. Gatlin finished in a slow 20.94 seconds. All other favorites for gold, including fellow Americans Wallace Spearmon, Tyson Gay and John Capel and Jamaica's Usain Bolt, also advanced. Allen Johnson qualified for the quarterfinals of the 110 hurdles earlier in the day, running into a strong headwind. The defending champion is seeking his fifth world crown but faces competition from China's Olympic champion Liu Xiang, France's Ladji Doucoure and U.S. teammate Terrence Trammell. All qualified in the tough conditions, but Johnson's time of 13.92 seconds was exactly a second slower than his world record. "I felt like I was about to go backwards there for a second," he said. "I actually felt like I wasn't going to make the next hurdle. "Never ran with the wind like that or into a wind like that." More rain was predicted for Wednesday, and it could wreak havoc with two of the prime finals scheduled. Whether Yelena Isinbayeva gets another pole vault record won't matter that much to the sellout crowd at the Olympic Stadium. For the Finns, the javelin is the main attraction. The crowd of 40,000 will be roaring for Tero Pitkamaki, who only needed one throw to get into the final. Isinbayeva just took two perfect jumps to reach her final, where the only question for most is whether she will beat her mark of 5.00 meters. Swirling winds already dumbfounded several pole vaulters during the men's qualifying on Tuesday. Add in a wet runway and other vaulters might just have a chance to get close to the overpowering Russian. The 23-year-old serial world record breaker could add a $160,000 payday if she sets the 18th world mark of her career. The javelin has held the Nordic nation spellbound for decades, and Finnish men have won 10 Olympic and world titles between them. Pitkamaki is the year's leading performer and needed only one throw on Tuesday to advance from qualifying, with Sergey Makarov of Russia and Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen as his major challengers. The javelin will take the spotlight off Gatlin, who will try to reach the final of the 200 on his way to a possible triple-gold championships. He runs the 400 relays on Sunday's final day. The decathlon was among the many events that suffered from a nearly two-hour delay when an electrical storm off the Baltic Sea swept across the stadium, chasing away thousands of fans and sending athletes into the dressing rooms. When they finally came back, Bryan Clay of the United States staved off Olympic champion and world record-holder Roman Sebrle by a slim margin at the halfway point in the decathlon. On Wednesday, he beat Sebrle in the 110-meter hurdles and the discus throw to increase his lead to 6,394-6,203. Clay clocked 14.43 seconds in the hurdles to Sebrle's 14.71 and had a discus throw of 53.68 meters (176 feet, 1 inch) to Sebrle's 46.85 (153-7). Kristjan Rahnu of Estonia was in third place after seven events with 6,080. "It was a very strong day for me," Clay said. "I can't complain — there were some (events) that didn't go as well as others. "Overall it was just a very strong performance. I don't think there was anything exceptional except for maybe my shot put. For me, that was really good. Other than that, it was just five solid events." Sebrle is the master of comebacks, however. At the Olympics in Athens, he didn't take the lead until the javelin — the ninth event. Running in Tuesday's driving rain, former Kenyan Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar retained his world championship steeplechase title, again frustrating Kenyan attempts to reclaim an event they consider their own. Also, two-time defending champion Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic pulled up with an injured hamstring after one hurdle in the 400, allowing Bershawn Jackson to lead a 1-2 U.S. finish with James Carter. If Shaheen's victory was predictable, gold for Cuba's Zulia Calatayud in the 800 was not. She came out of nowhere off the final bend to win, denying the favored Russians. Hasna Benhassi of Morocco was second and Russia's Tatyana Andrianova managed bronze. Double defending champion Maria Mutola finished fourth.
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