Men 200 metres semi finals
First 2 of each heat and 2 next fastest overall go through to the final this evening.
They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. Well, the Jamaican thunderbolt struck again this morning, repeating with nonchalance his domination of the men’s 200 metres.
Usain Bolt got up slow out of the blocks and pulled away from the other runners to win his heat of the men’s 200 metre semi-finals in an amazing 20.85 seconds. Amazing, because the youngster was once again powering down 50 metre sout from the finish and looking as though he was debating whether he should turn around and run the rest of the race backwards, so as to better see how far behind him the other runners were. Amazing, also, because he ran this time into a 2.5 m/s headwind, to finish nearly 20 hundredths of a second ahead of Antigua’s Brendan Christian in second place with 21.04. Bruno Pacheco from Brazil came in third, managing to make the final as one of the next fastest finishers with his time of 21.16.
In heat one, Grafton Ifil of the Bahamas won his race with 21.02 into a 1.1 m/s headwind, narrowly beating Rubin Williams (USA), who took second place with 21.07 and Sebastian Ernst of German with 21.09 qualifying also in third place.
The third heat was the slowest, as the runners had to battle with a 4.1 m/s headwind, but Wes Felix still managed to post a creditable 21.50 in first place, ahead of Till Hemke (GER), with 21.65.
