British trio through as Coleman lays down marker
Britain secured a clean sweep of sprinters for the men’s 100 metre semi-finals on the opening night of World Championships action here, although American Christian Coleman continues to look a class apart.
Coleman appeared to be facing a ban from this event when he was charged with a doping whereabouts violation last month, only for the case to be dropped and the world’s fastest man cleared to compete.
Racing in the last heat of the night, he had victory wrapped up by the halfway point before easing down considerably and still clocking 9.98sec. He looks nailed on for gold tonight. No other athlete broke 10 seconds but Zharnel Hughes impressed most of the British trio, winning his heat in 10.08. Adam Gemili came through a tough race to finish third in 10.19 behind reigning world champion Justin Gatlin and Olympic bronze medallist Andre De Grasse, while Ojie Edoburun advanced as a fastest loser in 10.23.
“I’m happy I got through, that’s the main aim and that’s what I came here to do,” Hughes, the European champion, said.
Shelayna Oskan-clarke and Alexandra Bell both progressed through some tricky 800m heats, but there was a surprise early exit for Lynsey Sharp. Holly Bradshaw advanced to tomorrow’s pole vault final, taking just one attempt to book her spot, but Commonwealth silver medallist Morgan Lake crashed out in high jump qualifying.
The men’s 5,000 metres saw an act of selfless sportsmanship as Guinea-bissau’s Braima Dabo sacrificed his own race to help an exhausted Jonathan Busby of Aruba across the line, although Busby was later disqualified.