Women’s 200m semifinals
Both models of power and fluency, Ionela Tirlea and Svetlana Goncharenko, set themselves up as favourites for the 200m final tomorrow with impressive winning performances. Tirlea was the fastest, with 22.66, although the 23 year-old Romanian is likely to be pressed hard by the Russian, who looked extremely comfortable despite a season’s best performance of 22.70. Nevertheless, the hurdler has reserves of endurance that are better than the specialist sprinters, and would be worth a bet. Jamaica’s Juliet Campbell was another qualifier, setting a personal best of 22.96, while her Caribbean neighbour Pauline Davis of the Bahamas ran a season’s best of 22.96.
