Women 60m hurdles
Heat 1
There was some controversy in the first heat of the womens 60m hurdles when four
athletes failed to respond to the recall gun and ran right through to the finish line.
There was then a 10-minute pause before the official announcement that the race would be
re-run and no false start charged to any athlete. US champion Melissa Morisson
winner of the first "race" and one of the favourites for the title
then promptly false started. At the third time of asking, Morisson got a decent start,
marginally slower than Glory Alozie, last seasons world number 1 for 100m hurdles,
but edged ahead by the finish. -7.95 to 7.98. The first two in each heat qualify
automatically.
Heat 2
Olympic 100m hurdles silver medallist Brigita Bukovec of Slovenia made hard work of
her first appearance on the Maebashi track. She won but clocked the same time as Irina
Korotya of Russian. There was just 2 hundredths of a second between Bukovec, with 8.04,
and fourth-placed Nicole Ramalalanirina the Madagascan who recently took up French
citizenship.
Heat 3
Kazakstans Olga Shishgina a silver medallist at 100m hurdles at the 1995
World Champs proved the classiest act of this final heat, cruising to 7.89, the
fastest time of the morning. Canadas Keturah clocked a national record of 7.90 in
second place.