Nigeria’s Oludamola Osayomi ran 11.13 seconds in round one of the Women’s 100m at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to qualify fastest for round two in tonight’s preliminary events at the National Stadium on August 16.
Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas qualified second fastest with a time of 11.17 seconds, while Poland’s Daria Korczynska ran a personal best time of 11.22 seconds to qualify in third place.
The times in round two are set to fall dramatically from those recorded in round one, with many athletes reporting that they held back to save themselves for the final.
Belgian Kim Gevaert looks to be a threat after finishing first in her heat. “I ran easy to save it for tonight and tomorrow,” she said.
Torri Edwards from the United States finished first in heat one, saying “I am pretty happy with my results. The race was pretty easy.”
“I wanted to run as easy as possible and come up with the slowest time I could,” she said.
This is Ferguson-McKenzie’s fourth Olympics, having won gold in the 4 x 100m Relay in Sydney 2000.
“I hope in some things, maturity and experience will count for something,” she said after finishing second in her heat. Though she went on to say, “That was too fast.”
(Source: en.beijing2008.cn)
