Trinidad and Toba-go's Keshorn Walcott had the best perform-ance of the semifinals, throwing 88.68 metres to qualify for the Olympic final of the men's javelin here last night.
The reigning Olympic champion looked at ease in sending a message to the rest of the field in qualifying with his first throw.
Walcott said he was very pleased with the way he felt going into the event. "I was very happy with how I am feeling and now it is just to continue along the same way on Satutrday."
He said that his placing first place in this part of his assignment will mean nothing come Saturday finals. "On Saturday, this score and my place here will not matter and so I am going to stay focused and not get carried away. I am feeling comfortable but there is still a long way to go. The objec-tive was to reach finals and I did and now that has been achieved, we will look to see how things go on Saturday."
Walcott will square off with a field thatincludes Germans Johannes Vetter who had the sec-ond best throw of 85.96 and Julian Weber (84.46) in Saturday's final. Another German Thomas Rohler (83.01) is also intothe finals while there are three finalists from the Czech Republic in Petr Frydrych (83.60), Jacub Vadlejck (83.27), and Vitezslav Vesely (82.85).
However, there was no luck for T&T's other semifinalist, Rondell Sorillo, last night.
In the men's 200 semifinals, Sorillo failed in his bid to reach the final, after finishing fifth in a time of 20.33.
Sorillo, racing from lane one, looked in position to challenge with 50 metres left but faded as American LaShawn Merritt won the race in 19.94 second with French-man Christopher Lemaitre gaining the sec-ond automatic spot in the finals with a time of 20.01.
In the second semifinal, Usain Bolt con-tinue to make his presence felt crusing to the finals in a winning time of 19.78. Chasing his to the line was Andre De Grasse, of Canada in 19.80.
JAVELIN FINAL QUALIFIERS
Keshorn Walcott, Trinidad & Tobago, 88.68m
Johannes Vetter, Germany, 85.96m Julian Weber, Germany, 84.46m Ryohei Arai, Japan, 84.16m
Petr Frydrych, Czech Republic, 83.60m Julius Yego, Kenya, 83.55m
Jakub Vadlejck, Czech Republic, 83.27m Dmytro Kosynskyy, Ukraine, 83.23m Thomas R�hler, Germany, 83.01m V�t?zslav Vesel�, Czech Republic, 82.85m
Antti Ruuskanen, Finland, 82.20m Braian Toledo, Argentina, 81.96m
200M FINALS QUALIFIERS
Ramil Guliyev, Turkey (20.09)
Adam Gemili, Great Britain (20.08) Alonso Edward, Panama, (20.06) Andre De Grasse, Canada (19.80) LaShawn Merritt, United States
(19.94)
Usain Bolt, Jamaica (19.78) Christophe Lemaitre, France (20.01) Ramil Guliyev Turkey (20.90) Churandy Martina, Netherlands (20.10)