It was another highly successful morning at the track, as all 5 of the Manx athletes in action made it safely and convincingly through to the semi-finals. The qualification criteria for all 3 events was the first 2 in each heat and the 4 fastest losers to progress to the semi-finals. All 5 of our athletes qualified in the top 2, and all looked to have plenty in hand.
In the men's 100 metres, Tom Riley went in Heat 3, and cruised through in 2nd place in a time of 11.23, a stride behind the Cayman athlete. He had a slight concern earlier in the week about some hamstring tightness but looked to be moving freely and easily this morning.
In the women's 200 metres, last night's 400m stars Sarah Dowling and Harriet Pryke were quickly back in action and again ran superbly. Sarah finished 2nd in Heat 3 in a time of 26.30 with a controlled performance, and Harriet again looked effortless in winning Heat 4 in a very rapid 25.71 - the fastest time of all the heats.
Finally and just as impressively, Peter Richardson and Ben Brand were in action in the 400 metres heats. Peter finished 2nd in Heat 1 behind yesterday's 800m champion Tom Druce, and had plenty in hand over the 3rd placed athlete. He was able to ease through the final 40 metres or so, yet still recorded a pretty fast time of 51.85. Ben was in Heat 4, and after false-starting at the first attempt he made no such mistake on the restart. He did the hard work in the first 200m to establish a commanding lead and was able to stride easily down the home straight to win by nearly 2 seconds in a time of 52.30.
The prospects for tonight are very good. At 6pm local time we have Marit Zahkna and Charlotte Christian competing in the Hammer, the strongest event for them both. At the same time Hollie Bass competes in the High Jump Final, which is also her best event. All 3 could challenge strongly for medals if all goes well.
Half an hour later the men's 4x400m relay team take part in their heat, and should qualify comfortably. There is no heat for the women's 4x400m relay - this will be run as a straight final on Friday. Incidentally, I reported yesterday that there was some confusion over the disqualification of Jersey's 4x100m women's relay team. It seems they have been reinstated as they have produced video evidence that their final changeover was legal. A bit of a controversial situation some feel!
Then at 7.10pm local time Gemma Astin goes in the women's 5000m final. Last night's performance in the 1500m will have sent her confidence soaring and providing she has recovered sufficiently she should do well in this race.
Fingers crossed. GO MANXIES!!
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