BEIJING, China, Sporting Alert – Justin Gatlin and Usain Bolt both eased through the early rounds of the men’s 100m at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing on Saturday.
Gatlin was superb when winning his heat in 9.83 seconds, although assisted by a slight 2.1 m/s tailwind, but he certainly served noticed to Usain Bolt heading into the semi-finals.
“I just wanted to set the tone going into the semis,” Gatlin told BBC One.
Racing in the heat right after Gatlin, Bolt clocked a well relaxed 9.96 secs to win his race with American Mike Rodgers running 9.97 to finish behind him.
“I never really used too much so overall it’s a good sign,” Bolt said. “I am here to get the business done. That’s all.”
Bromell Looks Impressive
American rising star Trayvon Bromell was in impressive form when winning his heat in 9.92 seconds.
The 19-year-old world junior record holder ran smoothly throughout the race, before taking his foot off the gas in the closing metres on his way to winning the heat.
Asafa Powell Ready To Go
Former world record holder Asafa Powell had earlier opened things up with a heat-winning performance of 9.95 seconds and the Jamaican champion looked very relaxed when taking the race as well.
Powell says he wants to run under 10-seconds throughout the entire championships and if the opening round performance is anything to go by, then the former World Championships bronze medallist is well on course to make that happen.
Finishing second to Asafa Powell in that opening heat was Bingtian Su of China in 10.03 and he too looked good when qualifying.
Elsewhere…
American Tyson Gay was also a heat winner – taking the second heat in 10.11 seconds running into a slight headwind of -1.4 m/s, after Anaso Jobodwana false-started and was thrown out of the race.
Jamaica’s Nickel Ashmeade (10.19) and France’s Christophe Lemaitre (10.24) followed Gay home.
Elsewhere in the 100m heats, Femi Ogunode of Qatar posted 9.99 secs to win his heat, with Trinidad and Tobago’s Keston Bledman, who looks injured, finishing last in 10.75.
Jimmy Vicaut of France won his heat in 9.92 seconds.
