The women’s 400m Hurdles Semifinals required some serious work from the hurdlers as there were three heats and only the best two from each heat with additional two fastest times qualified for the final. The most notable name to be dropped out of the final was Jamaican Kaliese Spencer who initially won the second semifinal but was later disqualified.
[19 Aug 2009 - UPDATE - Following Referee's decision Spencer was reinstated as it was decided she had committed no infraction to the rule.]
Semi 1 -
Romanian Angela Morosanu was fastest off the blocks with Josanne Lucas (TRI) and American Olympic silver medallist Sheena Tosta also starting fast. By the final curve Jamaican Olympic champion Melaine Walker was moving towards the lead finishing with a win in this heat in a fast 53.26 seconds time, a season’s best for the Beijing winner.
Josanne Lucas set Trinidad and Tobago national record for second place in 53.98 with Morosanu fading to third place in 54.15 to qualify by time to the final. Chinese Huang Xiaoxiao passed Beijing silver medallist Tosta after the final hurdle when the American almost stopped running setting a season’s best 55.40 for the fourth place with Tosta sixth in 56.31.
Semi 2 -
22-year-old Jamaican Kaliese Spencer was eliminated in the semis in Osaka 2007, but she tried to make sure same fate would not wait for her here in Berlin. Spencer controlled the race from the the start winning in 54.37, but was disqualified for hurdle fault (IAAF Rule 168.7). American Tiffany Williams and Anastasiya Rabchenyuk of Ukraine started to catch up with the Jamaican midway to the race, but they were challenged in the home straight by Polish Osaka 2007 bronze medallist Anna Jesien, but the Pole hit the last hurdle hard when she seemed to be moving to second in the race. Rabchenyuk finished in a season’s best 54.49 and emerged as the winner after Spencer’s disqualification with Williams second in 54.79. Jesien would have been out of the final but now advanced in third place clocking 54.82.
Semi 3 -
2005 World Championships silver medallist American Lashinda Demus started fastest with Jamaican Nickiesha Wilson following close in this heat. After 200 metres Demus started to move to a clear lead with the Jamaican still in second place at the start of final 100m. By the last hurdle Russian Natalya Antyukh had caught up with Wilson and Czech Zuzana Hejnova was close too. Demus won convincingly in 54.25 with Antyukh passing the Jamaican at the finish line grabbing the second automatic qualifying spot in 54.86 before Wilson’s 54.89 season’s best clocking. Hejnova was fourth in 54.99.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
