CLAY­TON CLARKE

Sport Cor­re­pon­dent

T&T’s de­fend­ing World cham­pi­on Jereem Richards missed out a spot in the men’s 400 me­tres fi­nal at the World In­door Track and Field Cham­pi­onships in Glas­gow, Scot­land on Fri­day.

Richards was fourth in the first semi­fi­nals in 46.64 sec­onds, miss­ing a lane in the fi­nal by one place as on­ly the three fin­ish­ers were sure to ad­vance to the medal round.

The 2022 gold medal­list start­ed in the tight in­side lane of the six-lane track. He got off to a quick start and he pressed to get to the front of the race at the break of lane at the 200m mark. How­ev­er, he was in fourth at the bell and still on the in­side lane.

The AJSA Boys Col­lege grad­u­ate had to check his stride on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions as he re­mained boxed on the in­side of his ri­vals and was un­able to make any de­ci­sive move down the back stretch. He made lit­tle in­road on the fi­nal straight and had to set­tle for fourth.

Alexan­der Doom of Bel­gium crossed the line in first ahead of Richard in a per­son­al best clock­ing of 45.69. Joao Coel­ho was sec­ond in a Por­tuguese record of 45.98. Hun­gary’s At­ti­la Mol­nar al­so fin­ished ahead of Richards in a na­tion­al record of 46.08. Niger­ian Dubem Nwachuku (46.69) and Al­ba­nia Franko Bur­raj (47.78) fol­lowed Richards to the fin­ish.

Nor­way’s world Out­door 400m hur­dles record hold­er Karsten Warholm took the sec­ond semi­fi­nal in 45.86 with Ja­maica Rusheen Mc Don­ald in sec­ond (46.02-pb) and Matej Krsek of Czech Re­pub­lic in third (46.48). The men’s 400m fi­nal is card­ed for lat­er Sat­ur­day at 5.10 pm (T&T time)

In the pre­lim­i­nar­ies ear­li­er on Fri­day morn­ing, Richards was fourth in heat three in 47.04. Mol­nar was first across the line in 46.53 with Nwachk­wu (46.91) in sec­ond. Por­tuguese Omar Elkhatb took third spot in a per­son­al best clock­ing of 46.99. With on­ly the top two from each of the four heats as­sured of a lane in the semi­fi­nals, Richard has to wait for the com­ple­tion of the fourth and fi­nal pre­lim­i­nary heat to know his fate. The de­fend­ing cham­pi­on's 47.04 was the fourth-fastest of the non-au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fiers and as­sured him a spot in the semi­fi­nals.

Krsek was the quick­est (46.07) in the pre­lim­i­nary round af­ter he won heat two. Heat four win­ner Doom (46.11) with Mc Don­ald (46.25-pb), the next fastest. Warholm (46.86) was sixth-fastest. The sur­prise in the first round was the elim­i­na­tion of the Amer­i­cans. US cham­pi­on Bri­an Faust was third in heat four (47.11) with his com­pa­tri­ot Ja­co­ry Pat­ter­son, sim­i­lar­ly end­ed third in heat one. How­ev­er, their times were not fast enough to en­sure they move on to the semi­fi­nals.

T&T's oth­er run­ner Michelle-Lee Ahye will be­gin her quest for her first World In­door medal when she lines up heat four of the first round of the women’s 60m set for 7.41 am (T&T Time). The na­tion­al women’s 60m record hold­er will start in lane six and will be seek­ing to fin­ish in the top three to ad­vance to the semi­fi­nal round sched­uled for 3.45 pm. The fi­nal is al­so set for lat­er Sat­ur­day (to­day). Among her com­peti­tors in heat four are the na­tion­al record hold­er of Bar­ba­dos, Tris­tan Eve­lyn (7.10) and New Zealand's Zoe Hobbs 7.13). Ahye has qual­i­fied for the fi­nals in the last four World In­door Cham­pi­onships.

Cana­da’s Sarah Mit­ton won the first ti­tle at this year’s World In­doors when she cap­tured the women’s shot put fi­nal with a sea­son’s best ef­fort of 20.22m. Ger­man Yemisi Ogunl­eye (20.19-pb) was sec­ond with two-time de­fend­ing World Out­door cham­pi­on Chase Jack­son (19.67) of the USA claim­ing bronze.

Amer­i­can Ryan Crouser took the men’s shot put in a cham­pi­onship record of 22.77m. The World in­door and Out­door record hold­er and two-time Olympic cham­pi­on de­nied New Zealand’s Tom Walsh a third in­door crown. Walsh took sil­ver in 20.07. Ital­ian Lea­nar­do Fab­bri (21.96) end­ed with the bronze.

Amer­i­cans Chris­t­ian Cole­man and Noah Lyles took gold and sil­ver in the men’s 60m fi­nal. Cole­man was first to the line in a world lead­ing time of 6.41 sec­onds with Lyle 0.03 sec­onds be­hind (6.44). Ja­maica’s Akeem Blake copped bronze in 6.46. Cole­man won the ti­tle for the sec­ond time he was vic­to­ri­ous at the 2018 World In­doors in Birm­ing­ham. The World In­door 60m record hold­er missed out on gold at the 2022 edi­tion in Bel­grade, Ser­bia where he had to set­tle sec­ond.

Noor Vidts of Bel­gium re­tained the women’s hep­tathlon crown scor­ing 4.773 points. Saga Van­ni­nen (4. 677) of Fin­land se­cured the sil­ver ahead of the Nether­lands’ Sofie Dok­ter (4,571).

Re­sults

Men’s 400m

Semi­fi­nals-Heat one (top three ad­vance to the fi­nals): 1 Alexan­der Doom (Bel­gium) 45.69 (pb); 2 Joao Coel­ho (Por­tu­gal) 45.98 (NR); 3 At­ti­la Mol­nar (Por­tu­gal) 46.08 (NR); 4 Jereem Richards (T&T) 46.64 (sb); 5 Dubem Nwackuk­wu (Nige­ria) 46.69; 6 Franko Bur­ray (Al­ba­nia) 47.78

Heat two: 1 Karsten Warholm (Nor­way) 45.86; 2 Rusheen Mc­Don­ald (Ja­maica) 46.02 (pb); 3 Matej Mrsek (Czech Re­pub­lic) 46.68; 4 Rok Fer­lan (Slove­na) 46.61 (pb); 5 Lu­cas Car­val­ho (Brazil) 47.38; 6 Omar Elkhat­ib (Por­tu­gal) 47.78

Shot put fi­nals

Women’s: 1 Sarah Mit­ton (Cana­da) 20.22; 2 Yemisi Ogunl­eye (Ger­many) 20.19; 3 Chase Jack­son (USA) 19.67

Men’s: 1 Ryan Crouser (USA) 22.77 (Cham­pi­onship record); 2 Tom Walsh (New Zealand) 22.07; 3 Lenar­do Fab­bri (Italy) 21.98

Women’s Pen­tathlon fi­nals: 1 Noor Vidts (Bel­gium) 4773 pts; 2 Saga Wan­ni­nen (Fin­land) 4677 pts; 3 Sofie Dok­ter (Nether­lands) 4571 pts.