The search for Michael Johnson’s Olympic 400-metre successor began in earnest as Chris Brown of the Bahamas led all first-round qualifiers with a splendid 45.09.
Pinned to the curb in lane one, Brown stayed near the front and then charged down the final straight to overtake Otis Harris of the US just before the finish. Harris also qualified with his second-place 45.11.
One of the medal favourites, Alleyne Francique of Grenada, also had to deal with a tight inside lane. The gold medallist in this winter’s World Indoor Championships, Francique, running in lane two, used a similar tactic to that of Brown in cruising to a 45.32 heat win, as Jamaica’s Davian Clarke followed him into the wire with 45.54.
Not the fastest but perhaps the most impressive run of the evening came from this year’s World list leader, Jeremy Wariner of the US. The slender 20-year-old had to run “blind” in lane eight, and after carving out a commanding lead after 300 metres, the Texas-based shut down his sprint more than ten metres before the finish and was literally walking at the finish, still clocking a 45.56. The reigning European champion, Ingo Schultz of Germany, had the best view of Wariner’s prowess with his second-place 45.88.
The third US entrant, Derrick Brew, moved ahead with a 45.41 heat win, ahead of Jamaica’s Brandon Simpson (45.61).
Like Wariner, Michael Blackwood of Jamaica had to cope with a lane-eight assignment, but he came away on top with a narrow 45.23 victory over an intense close from Hamdan Al-Bishi of Saudi Arabia (45.31).
The winner of the Ibero-American Championships earlier this month, Carlos Santa, was yet a third heat winner from the extreme outside lane. The Dominican Republic runner held off Zimbabwe’s Lewis Banda (45.37) and Mathews Binu of India (NR 45.48) in a heat which placed five runners in the semifinals, the most from any section.
Other heat winners were Paris fifth-placer Leslie Djhone of France
(45.40) and reigning Russian champion Anton Galkin (45.43).
The most significant non-qualifiers from the first round were a pair of medallists from the last European Championships - silver winner David Canal of Spain, whose seventh-place 47.23 was far off his usual standard, and bronze winner Daniel Caines of Great Britain, who finished in a slow fourth-place time of 46.15 in his heat.
An as-yet unexplained oddity concerning the list of qualifiers involves the final two advancers - Matija Sestak of Slovenia and Botswana’s California Molefe - both of whom clocked 45.88. With their apparent tie, the list of semifinalists currently stands at twenty-five, a most awkward number in view of the eight-lane track at the Olympic Stadium.
EG
