World champions Tyson Gay and Allyson Felix and reigning Olympic champion Shawn Crawford breezed into the 200m quarter-finals on Friday in qualifying at the US Track and Field Trials.
World 100m and 200m champion Gay, seeking the same golden double next month at the Beijing Olympics, avoided making the same blunder he had in 100m qualifying, when he seized a huge lead then slowed too soon and placed fourth in his heat.
Gay seized the edge form the start, checked over his shoulders as he neared the finish and only in his final strides did he slow down in winning the heat in 20.43 seconds, the second-fastest qualifying run.
PHOTO: AFP
“It felt pretty good and relaxing. I just needed that first run to get rid of the cobwebs,” Gay said. “That’s about the time I wanted to run.”
Gay was still feeling slight hip pain after winning the 100m final last Sunday in a wind-aided 9.68 seconds, the fastest 100m ever clocked under any conditions.
“My hip is a little bit sore, but that’s about it,” Gay said. “Four days was enough. I feel fine.”
PHOTO: EPA
Crawford, who has struggled since claiming Athens gold, had the fastest time of 24 who advanced to yesterday’s quarter-finals, taking his heat in 20.16. Walter Dix and Wallace Spearmon, also among the world’s best, won their heats as well.
With four entrants scratching, 200m qualifying eliminated only two runners.
Felix, whose dream of a 100m-200m double died with a fifth-place finish in last weekend’s 100m final, breezed to victory in her 200m heat in 22.68, second overall only to Shalonda Solomon’s 22.51.
“I just felt like I didn’t really set myself up good in the semi-finals,” Felix said. “I put myself way out there in lane eight which was not smart. I just felt out of touch with the race. I felt like I executed the best I could.”
All three US Olympians in the 100m — Torri Edwards, Muna Lee and Lauryn Williams — easily advanced as well although none won her own heat.
The 200m semi-finals were also scheduled for yesterday with a final today to decide three men and three women who will run at Beijing.
World 1,500m and 5,000m champion Bernard Lagat, the Kenyan-born 5,000m winner here who seeks the same golden double in Beijing, surged ahead in the final 100m to win his 1,500m semi-final heat in 3:43.83.
“It went all right,” Lagat said. “I wanted to run strong the last 200m and I think I ran the last 300 really hard. Really, I just wanted to conserve enough to run fast and strong at the end.”
Lagat took Olympic bronze in 2000 and Olympic silver in 2004 at 1,500 and moved within a podium finish of another chance at the elusive gold.
“I’m always good at the semi-finals because that’s really the beginning of the finals,” Lagat said. “I just wanted to run good and I’m glad I did.”
Gabriel Jennings won the other semi-final in 3:40.07 with Sudanese-born standout Lopez Lomong second in 3:40.26 and Mexican-born Leonel Manzano third in 3:40.32 to all secure berths in Sunday’s final.
“The race went really well. I did what I had to do. I just waited the whole thing and did not kill myself,” Lomong said.
Somalian-born Abdi Abdirahman won the 10,000 final in 27:41.89 and promptly kept running a victory lap along the outside of the track, then raced to the steeplechase water pit and plunged in for a celebratory bath.
“I’m fit and ready and able to go to Beijing and do something special, maybe even top three,” Abdirahman said.
Abdirahman, 31, placed seventh at last year’s worlds. He won his fourth US crown and qualified for his third Olympics by surging over the final 300 to beat Galen Rupp by 1.22 seconds with Jorge Torres third in 27:46.33.
Kara Goucher won the women’s 5,000m final in 15:01.02 with Jen Rhines second in 15:02:02 and 10,000m winner Shalane Flanagan third in 15:02:81. All three ran laps of about 66 seconds each over the last 1,200m to pull away from the field.
Goucher and Flanagan, eight in the 5,000m at last year’s world meet, qualified for Beijing in both the 5,000m and 10,000m.
Chaunte Howard, the 2005 world runner-up who had a baby last July, won the women’s high jump by clearing 1.97m. Amy Acuff, fourth in the 2004 Olympics, reaching her fourth Olympics at age 32 in second at 1.93.
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