Guyana’s three-member team of athletes got off to a good start with a 2-out-of-2 success rate in the opening rounds of the 12th World Champion-ships (WC) in Athletics now underway in Berlin, Germany. But, their first day euphoria dipped when short sprinter Adam Harris bowed out in the second round of the Men’s 100m run, seven hours after he and Aliann Pompey (Women’s 400m) both recorded main qualifications out of their preliminaries.
Earlier, on the butterfly-blue track of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, Harris and Pompey added their own colours to the multi-hued atmosphere as they placed identical third positions in their races.
Replete in a green outfit with red and gold swooshes; Harris lined up against seven other runners, and verified his eagerness for the ‘big time’ by churning out 10.35s in the last of 12 heats. American indoor champion Michael Rogers (10.25s) and Japanese #1 Nashi Tsukahara (10.28s) were the runners ahead of the University of Michigan senior.
But, in the quarterfinal, Harris who has one global meet to his credit – 200m at Beijing Olympics – caved in to the toll of over 12 months of incessant track, and paid the price with a slightly slower 10.39s running from an identical lane eight. It was good for fifth place, but outside the cut to make today’s semi-finals.
In between, Pompey – a five-time veteran of the biennial meet – used her experience to book a place into the Women’s 400m semi-final today (1:40pm today, Guyana time). The Guyanese quarter-miler, lithe in a red and black outfit, circled the track in 51.38s to ensure her clear-cut passage.
Pitted against gold medal favourites: world leader, American Sanya Richards (51.06s) and defending Olympic and world champion Christine Ohuruogu of Britain (51.30s), Pompey started purposefully in lane- six trailing the American on her immediate outer lane. By the 200m mark, she had made up a metre on Richards who, no doubt was saving her best for last. And, so was the Guyanese Commonwealth champion. On homestretch, with the American, the Brit, the Guyanese and Colombia’s Norma González in flight for the top-three slots, Richards and Ohuruogu pulled away slightly, but Pompey kept her form and made a surge of her own to cross the line in on the same page behind her rivals. The performance made Pompey the ninth fastest qualifier into the 24-person semis.
She escapes a repeat clash with Richards and Ohuruogu (both in semis 3 of 3), but will reacquaint with González in the first heat. Also matching up with Pompey will be Amantle Montsho of Botswana who had the overall fastest time (50.65s) from the prelims. Also in the event are US#3 Jessica Beard, 2007 world bronze medalist Novlene Williams-Mills and compatriot Christine Day of Jamaica, Nigerian champ Amaka Ogoegbunam, and Olympic finalist and 2003 world 200m champion Anastasiya Kapachinskaya.
The opening showing by the team should not only buoy Pompey’s zest into the next round, but should also spur the third member of the local team, Marian Burnett, into her opening 800m run today. The South American champion steps out for the first set of races on the track which begins at 4:10am, Guyana time.
Burnett runs in the 3rd of six heats and the only one with the full complement of runners (8). The three-time WC competitor will be hard- pressed in a race that features the likes of potential finalists Olympic and world championships finalist Hazel Clark of the USA, Britain’s world indoor and European finalist Jennifer Meadows, two-time European Cup champion Lucia Klocová of the Slovak Republic and Ukraine’s world and Olympic finalist Yuliya Krevsun.
Both Pompey and Burnett were semi-finalists at the last World Championships in 2007 in Osaka, Japan.
