Qatar’s Abdalelah Haroun made it to the men’s 400m final with a season’s best time of 44.64 seconds in the semi-final heats at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London yesterday.
Finishing third in the second heat, which was topped by South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk with a time of 44.22 seconds, 20-year-old Haroun did enough to round up the eight-man final showdown, that is scheduled for tomorrow.
Haroun’s compatriot, Abderrahaman Samba ran the fifth fastest time in the men’s 400m hurdles to make it to the semi-finals.
Samba ran 49.39 seconds yesterday, with Turkey’s Yasmani Copello the fastest with a time of 49.13 seconds.
In one of the closest events, all the runners, who qualified for today’s semi-finals finished with in a second of Copello’s time.
Later in the evening, Van Niekerk, who also set the world record when winning Olympic gold in Rio last year, switched off with 10 metres to run to clock 44.22 seconds to win his heat ahead of Botswana’s Baboloki Thebe.
Thebe’s older teammate Isaac Makwala, like Van Niekerk going for a 200/400m double, won his semi-final easily in 44.30sec.
The fastest time was a blistering 43.89sec by Steven Gardiner, a national record for Bahamas.
Nathon Allen was sucked along on his coattails in 44.19, with another Jamaican, Demish Gaye, also qualifying for tomorrow’s final with a personal best of 44.55.
Also making it to the final is American college runner Fred Kerley.
Much is expected of Van Niekerk, the world and Olympic champion who smashed American Michael Johnson’s world 400m record when winning in Rio last summer in 43.03sec.
Even Usain Bolt has pegged the 25-year-old South African as his most likely successor as the athlete capable of dominating the track after the Jamaican sprint star’s exit from athletics after these world champs.
Should Van Niekerk, or Makwala, bag the double, it would be the first since Johnson achieved the feat at the 1995 worlds in Gothenburg and a year later at the Atlanta Olympics.
Qatar’s Abderrahaman Samba (left) and Turkey’s Yasmani Copello congratulate each other on finishing the men’s 400m hurdles heat London yesterday. (Reuters)
