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EUGENE, Oregon: World champions Tyson Gay and Allyson
Felix and reigning Olympic champion Shawn Crawford breezed into the
200-meter quarterfinals here Friday in qualifying at the US Track
and Field Trials.
World 100 and 200 champion Gay,
seeking the same golden double next month at the Beijing Olympics,
avoided making the same blunder he had in 100 qualifying, when he
seized a huge lead then slowed too soon and placed fourth in his
heat.
Gay seized the edge form the
start, checked over his shoulders as he neared the finish and only
in his final strides did he slow down in winning the heat in 20.43
seconds, the second-fastest qualifying run.
Gay was still feeling slight hip
pain after winning the 100 final last Sunday in a wind-aided 9.68
seconds, the fastest 100 ever clocked under any conditions.
Crawford, who has struggled since
claiming Athens gold, had the fastest time of the 24 who advanced to
Saturday quarterfinals, taking his heat in 20.16. Walter Dix and
Wallace Spearmon, also among the world’s best, won their heats as
well.
With four entrants scratching,
200 qualifying eliminated only two runners.
Felix, whose dream of a 100-200
double died with a fifth-place finish in last weekend’s 100 final,
breezed to victory in her 200 heat in 22.68, second overall only to
Shalonda Solomon’s 22.51.
All three US Olympians in the 100
- Torri Edwards, Muna Lee and Lauryn Williams - easily advanced as
well although none won her own heat.
The 200 semifinals are also
Saturday with a Sunday final to decide three men and three women who
will run at Beijing.
Meanwhile, world 1,500 and 5,000
champion Bernard Lagat, the Kenyan-born 5,000 winner here who seeks
the same golden double in Beijing, surged ahead in the final 100
meters to win his 1,500 semi-final heat in 3:43.83.
Lagat took Olympic bronze in 2000
and Olympic silver in 2004 at 1,500 and moved within a podium finish
of another chance at the elusive gold.
--AFP
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