Continuing his successful move from the 200m to the 400m, Swede Johan Wissman signaled that he’ll be a potent force to contend with this weekend.
The 25-year-old, who won silver over 200m at the 2004 World Indoor Championships, led all qualifiers with his 46.12 career best with his victory in the fifth of five heats. His previous indoor best of 46.17 was set last year.
Costa Rica’s Nery Brenes made a successful debut at a World Indoors with his heat two win in 46.45, a national record for the 22-year-old.
Three others dipped under 47 seconds to advance automatically, including Bahamian Chris Brown (46.47), the reigning silver medallist, Chris Lloyd from Dominica (46.79) and Russia’s Maksim Dyldin (46.96).
World leader Tyler Christopher (47.06) moved on with his victory in heat three, along with Austrialian Sean Wroe (47.23 PB) the winner of heat one.
The major casualties of the opening round were two-time defending champion Alleyne Francique who was a distant fifth in heat five clocking 48.64, and American Greg Dixon, second at the U.S. Championships, who was third in heat 1 in 47.64, and did not advance.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
