The biggest surprise in the first round of the women’s 400m, the first track event of the 6th World Championships in Athletics, was the non start of Nigeria’s Charity Opara, ranked third in the world this year and one of five women to have run under 50 seconds in 1997.
Other than that, all the main contenders for medals qualified without trouble.
The fastest qualifier was the Czech Republic’s Helena Fuchsova, the bronze medallist in this year’s World Indoor Championships in Paris.
Her time, 51.05 was a personal best by four hundredths of a second. The favourite for gold, Olympic silver medallist, Cathy Freeman of Australia, finished second in the fifth heat in 51.53.
There were two national records: 51.99 by Darsha Damayanthi of Sri Lanka, who was third in the first heat; and 55.54 by Cathalina Staye of St Vincent. Dijana Kojic of Bosnia and Herzegovina ran a personal best of 55.06.
