Caterine Ibarguen in the triple jump at the IAAF World Championships London 2017 (© Getty Images)
As expected, pre-champs favourites Caterine Ibarguen and Yulimar Rojas easily advance to Monday evening's final in the women's triple jump.
Ibarguen, who is seeking a third successive title, sailed 14.21m with her first leap, reaching the automatic qualifying mark with one centimetre to spare.
"There are no doubts," said the 33-year-old Colombian, who took the Olympic title last year. "I am aiming for a third world championships victory in London. Winning in Rio was great but I am still hungry for more."
The 21-year-old Rojas, who emerged last year as Ibarguen's most serious challengers since the Colombian took control of the event in 2013, produced the second best jump of the morning, but needed a second leap to move on. Shaking out the rust with 14.17m with her first attempt, she followed up with 14.52m to call it a day.
"I'll have to work hard to win in the final but I will show that I am capable," said Rojas, who took silver in Rio last year behind Ibarguen. "I'm a little upset about needing two jumps to qualify, but I have been working a lot on the psychological part of the competition, too."
The farthest jump of the day came courtesy of Olga Rypakova, the 2008 Olympic champion from Kazakhstan. The 32-year-old reached 14.57 with her first leap to also call it an early day.
"I was a little bit worried before today's qualification as my current season was far from ideal," said Rypakova, who arrived in London with a 14.64m season's best. "I was surprised that I have managed to fulfill qualification in the first round."
With a fairly modest 14.20m leap required to qualify --the shortest at a World Championships since 2005-- the round produced no major casualties.
Portugal will have two women in the final, with Susana Costa and Patricia Mamona moving on, the former reaching a 14.35m lifetime best and the latter 14.29m. Jamaica will also see two women in the final, Shanieka Ricketts advancing with an automatic qualifying mark of 14.21m, along with Kimberly Williams, a finalist in the last two Olympics. Williams reached 14.14m, one of five jumpers who advanced on distance.
Germany will also field two jumpers in the final, led by Kristin Gierisch who reached 14.25m.
A leap of just 14.07m was enough to advance to the final. Only two non-qualifying jumpers surpassed 14 metres: Tori Franklin of the US, whose 14.03 was a personal best, and Romanian Elena Panturoiu, who jumped 14.02.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
