Whisker in it as ill wind blows away Browning chances for 100m final
ROHAN Browning went within a whisker of making the 100m final.
The Sydney sprinter finished third in his semi-final and was awarded the same time as the second placegetter but got dudded when it was expanded to thousandths of a second which, in anyone’s language, is a whisker.
Unfortunately there will be no Australians in tonight’s final with national champion Trae Williams also failing to get through his semi-final.
In a heartbreaking turn of events, Browning stayed by the edge of the track and watched the third semi-final hoping for a slow race which would get him through to the final as one of the two next fastest.
Unfortunately a tail wind sprang up for the first time – effectively the death knell for Browning.
He was unlucky not to go through automatically given he looked set to finish second until the final stride when South Africa’s Henricho Bru- intjies dived at the line. The pair were awarded the same time of 10.26sec but the expanded clock then did no favours for the Australian.
Williams won his heat before executing his trademark flying start in the semi-final.
‘Quadzilla’ looked a chance at halfway but he was clearly still a work in progress as he was swamped late to finish fourth in 10.28sec.
While he wasn’t able to deliver the 10.10sec performance from the selection trials two months ago, Williams didn’t look out of place mixing it with the likes of former world champ Jamaica’s Yohan Blake.
“I’m a bit disappointed but it’s my first international competition,” he said. “It was a good experience to be out here racing them and I was up there for the first 50 or 60 but just didn’t have the back end in me.
“My time (10.28) wasn’t that great. With all the running I’ve been doing at training over the last couple of months I could have made it through, but that’s athletics and it’s just not the right day.”
Blake was the fastest qualifier into the final, clocking 10.06sec, with Cayman Islands’ Kemar Hyman next (10.10sec) from England’s Adam Gemili (10.11sec).
In the women’s semi-finals, Australia’s national record holder Melissa Breen was run out, finishing fifth in a season’s best 11.76sec.
In the 400m heats, Steve Solomon showed he might be getting back to the form which made the 2012 Olympic final.
Solomon unleashed off the bend to win in 45.39sec.