DAEGU, South Korea, August 27- World 800m record holder, David Rudisha and women 3000m Africa and Commonwealth steeplechase champion, Milcah Chemos easily prevailed in the preliminaries of their events on Saturday.
Rudisha, one of the main attractions at these championships hardly engaged second gear as he clocked 1:46.29 to win Heat 4 of the men 800m at the Daegu Stadium, with Polish athlete, Marcin Lewandowski (1:46.73) and Dutch runner, Bram Som (1:46.79) coming through to fill the top three.
Teammates, Osaka 2007 champion and Berlin 2008 silver medallist, Alfred Kirwa Yego and Jackson Kivuva also qualified for Sunday’s semis.
Kirwa (1:45.50) was third in his preliminary won by Sudan’s double World Indoor Champion, Abubaker Kaki Khamis in 1:44.83 and the fastest mark of the heats with Mohammed Aman (1:45.17) from Ethiopia finishing second.
Twice Worlds silver medallist and Athens Olympic champion, Yuriy Borzakovskiy led Kivuva to the line with 1:46.14 against 1:46.47 in the second heat.
Chemos, yet to be beaten in her race this season, won her heat in 9:35.61 as compatriots Mercy Njoroge and Lydia Rotich also booked their slots for Tuesday’s medal race.
Russia’s Yuliya Zaripova (9:35.80) and Gesa Felicitas (9:35.83, PB) followed Chemos across the line whilst Rotich (9:36.70) played the bridesmaid to Ethiopia’s Sofia Assefa (9:32.48).
Njoroge (9:24.25) finished third in the first heat where the Turkish winner, Binnaz Uslu ran a national record of 9:24.06 to win that also went down as the quickest mark of the preliminaries.
Tunisia’s Habiba Ghribi (9:24.95) was second.
Olympic champion, Asbel Kiprop is in action on Sunday in the men 1500m heats where Commonwealth champion, Silas Kiplagat, who has the world lead and the returning Daniel Kipchirchir Komen complete the Kenyan trio.
– Mutwiri Mutuota is reporting for Capital FM from Daegu, South Korea
