Champion Usain Bolt

800m WOMEN

Kenia Sinclair, the lone Jamaican in the 800m women started in the fifth heat and was an automatic qualifier as she placed third in a time of 2:04.52 behind Olympic Champion Pamela Jelimo of Kenya and Maggie Vessey of the USA.

100m WOMEN

The four Jamaican women in the 100m all easily qualified for the 2nd Round and subsequently the semi-final round of the women’s 100m. Kerron Stewart produced the fastest time of the semi-final round – 10.92 just ahead of American Carmelita Jeter (10.94) in winning her quarter final heat. Veronica Campbell also won her heat, easily beating Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas. Olympic Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser and Aleen Bailey were both automatic qualifiers in coming second in their heats in 11.02 and 11.12 respectively. Aleen did not get a good start, but made a strong surge at the end to edge out Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad who took third place in the heat.

400m WOMEN

Shericka Williams produced a personal best time of 49.51 in winning her semi-final heat in the women’s 400m and now has the leading time going in to the finals. Novelene Williams-Mills ranks third going in to the finals as she too won her semi-final heat in a time of 49.88. Both women embraced at the end of the round obviously happy with making it to the finals and confident of preferred lane assignments based on their rankings. Christine Day could only produce a 53.46 which was not good enough to qualify her for the finals.

400m Hurdles MEN

Danny McFarlane pleasantly surprised his fans when he became the fastest loser to qualify for the finals of the men’s 400m Hurdles. Danny’s heat was won by Kerron Clement of the USA who set a fast pace for the heat. Coming into the home stretch all hurdling form was forgotten by Danny McFarlane when he literally started jumping the hurdles in an effort to get to the finals. His effort produced a time of 48.49 good enough for fourth place. Isa Phillips also placed fourth in his heat after going out perhaps a little bit too fast and hitting the last hurdle. His disappointing time of 48.93 was not good enough to take him to the finals.

100m MEN

In what the Germans dubbed “the grand duel” – a race supposedly between Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Tyson Gay of USA – Usain Bolt showed the world that he is indeed the greatest as he took home the gold in a World Record time of 9.58. There was a definite hush in the packed Berlin Olympic Stadium seconds before the start of the men’s 100m, Jamaican fans throughout the stadium waved their “Bolt Arms” in anticipation of Bolt’s winning performance. Bolt as usual was not one of the fastest starters, but once he got going he easily and confidently cruised past Powell and Gay in the most exciting race of the championships so far. Asafa Powell, though getting a good start, was not able to keep his edge on Tyson Gay and was passed by the American leaving him in the third spot in a season’s best time of 9.84.