The first of six heats in the first round of the men’s 200m saw Great Britain’s Julian Thomas take the win in a windy 20.93. Japan’s Noda Hiroyuki was fastest out of the blocks but eventually finished second in 21.00 as Thomas sped past him in the last 10 metres of the race. Jacobu Mitchell of Bahamas was third in 21.34. Australia’s Luke Mansfield pulled a muscle in lane six while Daniel Bailey of Antigua who was fourth in last night’s 100m final did not start.
With the wind still blowing over the legal limit of 2 metres per second, Asian Junior champion Sanad Mohamed Al-Rasheedi of Barhain took the best start in heat two and entered the home straight well clear of Finland’s Visa Hongisto who was running a brilliant race in lane one. Al-Rasheedi managed to hold on to his lead but only just as he clocked 21.17 the same time of fast finishing Martial Mbandjock of France. Hongisto grabbed the last automatic qualifying spot three hundredths of a second behind.
Germany’s Florian Rentz improved his personal best to 21.19 to win heat three as the wind dropped down to a +1.2m/s. Following an early lead of Jamaica’s Grafton Ifill who would eventually be disqualified for running out of his lane, Trinidad and Tobago’s Marcus Duncan sped away seemingly secured of winning the heat only to be out-dipped by one hundredth of a second by Rentz. Taking advantage of Ifill’s disqualification, Russia’s Anton Korobets advanced to the semi-finals in third.
After a very cautious start in heat four, the newly crowned Long Jump World Junior champion Andrew Howe of Italy ran very powerful for 120 metres before dramatically slowing a good 15 metres before the line. Howe clocked a new personal best and the fastest time of this morning heats of 20.86 only 9 hundredths of a second off the national junior record. USA’s Carey Lacour was second in 21.18 with Trinidad and Tobago’s Jamil James was a distant third in 21.43.
A semi-finalist in the 100m, South Africa’s Leigh Julius had a very comfortable win in heat five as he clocked 20.91n the second fastest time behind Howe. Way back, New Zealand’s Graeme Read improved his personal best to 21.43 to take second only three hundredths of a second ahead of Yordan Ilinov of Bulgaria.
The last heat was taken by the second British representative as Rikki Fifton out-dipped Hank Palmer of Canada who had been in the lead for most of the race. Both Fifton and Palmer were given 20.99 with Marcus Pugh of the US finishing fast to clinch the final qualifying spot in 21.20.
