World record holder in women’s 100m hurdles will have to wait till all the semifinals are concluded to know if she is qualified for the final.

She finished third in her race when she clocked 12.55 seconds. She will have to wait to find out if any third placed person will not have a better time.

Nigeria’s Favour Ofili will be the centre of attraction tonight as she attempts to show the world what they could have seen if she had taken part in the 100m women’s race at the Paris 2024.

She has the winner of the race, Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia to beat and make a bold statement.  Both clashed in the first semi-finals of the race on Monday night where Alfred took first over Ofili. The time difference between the two was just 0.07 seconds. Alfred ran 21.98 seconds while Ofili returned after 22.05.

But a semi-final race is not the same as the final race as both may have just ran the earlier one for qualification reserving energy for the big race.

Also lined up are McKenzie Long, Brittany Brown and Gabrielle Thomas of the United States,  Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita (both British), Jessika Gbai of Cote d’Ivoire,

MIKE ROWBOTTOM,  FOR WORLD ATHLETICS

The morning session on Saturday (Day 3 of Athletics) ended with drama in the decathlon as Canada’s defending champion Damian Warner and Norway’s Sander Skotheim were both unable to register a mark in the pole vault.

An Olympic decathlon best of 53.91m in the discus had lifted Grenada’s Lindon Victor to within one place of a medal after seven events, with Germany’s overnight leader Leo Neugebauer remaining in pole position ahead of Warner and Skotheim after that discipline.

But the medal dreams of Warner and Skotheim were dashed following the pole vault, as they failed to clear their opening heights.

US sprinters Kenny Bednarek, the Tokyo 200m silver medallist, and Fred Kerley, the 2022 world champion, were top qualifiers in the men’s 100m heats as they both clocked 9.97.

The key challengers, including Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson who leads this year’s 100m world list with 9.77, plus USA’s world champion Noah Lyles and defending champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy, also all progressed.

Meanwhile, the first of the newly created repechage rounds, in the women’s 800m, created races of huge excitement, with home athlete Anais Bourgoin generating ear-splitting noise from another packed morning session crowd as she progressed to tomorrow’s semifinals.

Warner, Canada’s defending champion in the decathlon, got his second day of competition off to a successful start as he produced the fastest 110m hurdles time of 13.62, with Ken Mullings of The Bahamas registering 13.70 and France’s Makenson Gletty, massively encouraged by the buzzing crowd, clocking the third best effort of 13.96.

That bunch of 1024 points moved Warner, fourth at the end of the first day, into the lead on 5585, 14 points clear of Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delerme, with Neugebauer, who leads this year’s world list with 8961, staying in touch in third place on 5560, one place ahead of Norway’s European silver medallist Skotheim on 5543.

Victor’s was the winning flourish in the discus. But Neugebauer, who holds the decathlon world best in the discus of 57.70m, did enough with a second-place 53.33 to retain gold-medal position with 6500 points, 72 ahead of Warner, with Skotheim third on 6326 and Victor fourth on 6311.

But it was all change after the pole vault, as first Skotheim failed all his three attempts at his opening height of 4.50m and then Warner did the same at his opening height of 4.60m. Neugebauer cleared 5.00m and Victor 4.90m, but there were PBs for Estonia’s Janek Oiglane and Norway’s Markus Rooth, who both managed 5.30m.

That took Rooth to 7271 points and he finished the session in second place, behind Neugebauer on 7410 and ahead of Victor on 7191, with only the javelin and 1500m to go.