British 100m champion Louie Hinchliffe was among the 100m heat winners on the second morning session at the Stade de France at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Hinchliffe was drawn in the same heat as reigning world champion Noah Lyles but the 22-year-old emerged victorious from heat three in 9.98 - the third fastest time of his career - ahead of Lyles in 10.04.
Hinchliffe qualified third fastest for tomorrow evening’s semifinals behind Americans Kenny Bednarek and Fred Kerley, both of whom won their heats in 9.97.
But there were mixed fortunes for the other Brits in the 100m heats.
On the comeback from a hamstring injury which forced him to miss the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, Zharnel Hughes qualified safely with a 10.03 clocking but reigning European U23 champion Jeremiah Azu was disqualified from the first heat for a false start.
Reigning champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs opened his Olympic campaign by slotting into second place in heat five in 10.05 behind Nigeria’s Kayinsola Ajayi in 10.02.
Business as usual for Duplantis
Reigning champion Armand Duplantis began his Olympic title defence in the pole vault with the minimum of fuss or energy expended, clearing 5.60m and 5.75m on his first attempts to book his place in the final.
Also among those to qualify with an unblemished card were reigning European indoor champion Sondre Guttormsen from Norway, European silver medallist Emmanouil Karalis from Greece, along with Turkiye’s Ersu Sasma and Germany’s Oleg Zernikel.
Sadly there was no place in the final for home favourite Thibaut Collet who missed out on a spot in the final on countback at 5.70m.
Germany’s Leo Neugebauer retains pole position in the decathlon after the 110m hurdles and discus with 6500 points ahead of Canada’s Damian Warner (6428 points) and Norway’s European silver medallist Sander Skotheim (6326 points).
After surviving the 110m hurdles in 14.51, Neugebauer produced the second longest discus across the two pools with 53.22m behind Grenada’s Lindon Victor who reached out to an Olympic decathlon discus best of 53.91m.
The repechage round made its Olympic debut this morning, offering athletes who didn’t make the women’s 800m semifinals yesterday evening another chance to progress.
Among those to seize the six vacant slots were Germany’s Matjie Kolberg (1:59.08) and Switzerland’s Valentina Rosamilia (1:59.65) although one of the loudest cheers of the morning was reserved for Anais Bourgoin who won the second heat of the repechage in 1:59.52.
Steven Mills for European Athletics