Women 800m heats
Austria's Stephanie Graf, who has had some epic duels with Olympic champion Maria Mutola this winter, qualified easily in the first heat of the 800m. Graf, who set a personal best of 1:57.53 recently, recorded a more modest 2:04.58, easing up to let the blonde German Ivonne Teichmann, who had shadowed her through 400m in 63.2 and 600m in 1:34, past to gain a token victory in 2:04.58.
Maria Mutola, who was next to run, let Tamsyn Lewis do the pace making, with the Australian going through the first 400m in 60.2, and still leading at the bell, reached in 1:32.8. But Mutola was right on her shoulder, and surged past just before the final bend. Checking her progress with glances to her right, she completed the final straight to stop the clock at 2:04.16. Lewis faded, and was overtaken by Lwiza Msyani John of Tanzania before the finish.
There were no major casualties, and the other main favourites qualifying without difficulty. Helena Fuchsova (CZE) took heat 3 with 2:04.58, from Svetlana Cherkasova (RUS), while Russia's Yelena Afanasyeva seemed to have done enough to win the final heat speeding through 400m in 60.7 and the bell in 1:32, until Slovenia's Jolanda Steblovnik-Ceplak kicked past and ended the race with 2:02.98, the fastest time of the day.
