NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 1 – Ferguson Rotich and Emmanuel Korir have both powered into the final of the 800m at the Tokyo Olympic Games after coming through the semis on Sunday.
While Rotich won his heat, Korir had to dip his head across the line to ensure he finished second to pick one of only two automatic qualifying slots.
The third Kenyan in the semis, Michael Saruni, failed to make it into the final after finishing sixth in his heat.
Rotich ran in a heat full of drama that ended up with the world’s fastest man this year, Nijel Amos of Botswana clipping the heel of American Isaiah Jewett at the back straight, the two men coming tumbling down while Ferguson just but managed to skip over the heap.
The Kenyan sped off at the home straight, running on the outside lane to establish a good gap between him and the second placed Amel Tuka from Bosnia.
The Kenyan clocked 1:44.04, the quickest qualifying time from across the three heats.
Nijel and Jewett meanwhile embraced each other as they got back on their feet, jogging to the finish line just to finish the race despite their Olympic hopes being dashed.
Meanwhile, Korir had to dig deep into his energy reserves to claim a place in the final after coming off second from his heat.
He had been placed fourth at the bell with the leading pack pumping up the pace towards the 300m mark.
Korir, who earlier on in the morning saw his double hopes dashed after false starting in the 400m skipped out wide to try and get space to power a good finishing kick.
However, the leading pack of four were relentless and Korir just but managed to go over, clocking 1:44.74 behind Dobek Patryk from Poland who timed 1:44.60.
He just but managed to beat Mexican Jesus Tonatiu who timed 1:44.77.
In the second heat, Michael Saruni could not make it to the final after only coming sixth, timing 1:44.54 in a very fast heat won by Australian Peter Bol who had a time of 1:44.11.
