US champion Kelli White stamped her authority on the women's 100m in the semi-finals this evening, recording the only sub-11 time of the round and looking a strong favourite to claim gold in the final at 19:45.
White, running in heat one, had to contend with the loud home crowd support for France's former European champion Christine Arron, not to mention the close attention of reigning world champion Zhanna Block (UKR). At the gun, all the main contenders were away cleanly and White, Block, Arron and Marina Kislova (RUS) were together at half way, with Jamaica's Aileen Bailey and the veteran Merlene Ottey (SLO) giving chase.
Kislova began to fall back as Bailey came up in lane three. But it was White who had the strongest finish, moving ahead in the last 10 metres to clock 10.96, while Arron pipped Block for second by one hundredth, 11.01 to 11.02, season?s bests for both. Bailey came through for the fourth qualifying spot in 11.15, while Kislova was unlucky to miss out on the final, recording exactly the same time as the Jamaican.
The first three in that heat were all quicker than world leader Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas, who took heat two in 11.06, ahead of a season?s best of 11.08 from Greece?s Olympic silver medallist Ekaterini Thanou. The US ensured it will have three in the final as World Indoor bronze medallist Torri Edwards and former Olympic champion Gail Devers took the final two places. Devers' 11.12 was a season's best, a hundredth behind her team-mate.
The Commonwealth champion Debbie Ferguson (BAH) misses out, as does Ottey, marking, perhaps, the end of a long and supremely distinguished World Championships career for the former Jamaican.
