By Emmerson Campbell in Birmingham, England
Kenisha Phillips will join the likes of sprint superstar, Elaine Thompson-Herah in today’s 200 metres semifinals after making it past the heats yesterday here at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, England.
It is quite an achievement for the 21 year-old in her debut at these prestigious Commonwealth Games.
Phillips placed fifth in her heat in 24.13 seconds but made the cut to today’s semis which starts at 20:15hrs. She will run in semi-final 2 from lane two at 20:23hrs.
Thompson-Herah, who won the 100m title in 10.95 seconds on Wednesday, made the quick turnaround yesterday morning to cruise through her first round heat.The Jamaican who is the third-fastest woman ever to contest the event, covered the field in the opening half of the race to build a handsome advantage before coasting home for the win in 22.80s. The sprint icon will run in semi-final 3, eight minutes after Phillips.
Meanwhile, Phillips’ countrymen, Akeem Stewart, Arinze Chance, and Noelex Holder, however were not as fortunate as they could not progress to today’s semis following the eight blistering men’s heats in the packed and boisterous stadium.
Stewart, the national 200 metres champion, faded to fifth in the final 50 metres and clocked in 21.42 seconds to end his individual participation at the 22nd edition of the quadrennial fixture.
In his half lap event, Chance who is more renowned for his 400-metre exploits, finished sixth in the race with a time of 22.22 seconds, only good enough for a sixth place finish.
Despite running a season’s best 21.77 seconds out of lane seven, Holder’s effort was not good enough to propel him into today’s semis after ending the race in sixth.
Meanwhile in the field, Emanuel Archibald disturbed the sand in with a leap of 7.54 metres, way off his personal best and national record (8.12m) and finished 11th out of 12 leapers in the final of the men’s long jump.
The podium dwellers were Laquan Nairn (8.08m) of the Bahamas, India’s Sreeshankar Sreeshankar (8.08m) and South Africa’s Jovan Van Vuuren (8.06m).
Note: Besides Phillips, another representative of the 592, Aliyah Abrams will also be in the starting blocks. The Tokyo 2020 Olympian will contest the 400 metres semis from 19:40hrs.
