James Dasaolu, the great new hope of British sprinting, almost suffered severe embarrassment before scraping into Sunday's semi-finals of the 100m. On a day that featured reports of the first doping offender to be sent home, Trinidad's 100m medal hope Kelly-Ann Baptiste, Usain Bolt's billing as some kind of dope-free saviour was held up to the light immediately as he made the most leisurely of starts to his quest to match Carl Lewis's eight world championship golds in the 100m first round. Yet while Bolt effortlessly won his heat in 10.07 sec, Dasaolu only just edged into the semis. He blamed a bad start and a touch of rustiness but it was an entirely unconvincing effort as he pulled up recklessly at the finish.
"I thought I had third in the bag and eased up. I'm glad it hasn't cost me a spot in the semi-finals," said Dasaolu, after an anxious wait to learn whether he would scrape through. "I've learnt a lesson." Competition to Bolt will inevitably come from two-time doping offender Justin Gatlin, who won his heat in 9.99 sec, while the fastest qualifier was his fellow American Mike Rodgers (9.98 sec). Britons Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (10.16 sec) and Dwain Chambers (10.14 sec) both qualified, too.
Meanwhile, Baptiste, who won bronze in the 100m at the last championships in Daegu two years ago and was one of the favourites in the blue riband event, was reported by the Trinidad Express to have withdrawn from the competition, with the paper's sources claiming she had tested positive for a banned substance. The news was exactly the nightmare start to the week that organisers had been desperate to avoid after a summer of doping scandals which had already seen three of the sport's biggest names, Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown, miss the championships.
Olympic silver medallist Christine Ohuruogu delivered a statement of intent, running her fastest ever heat time to advance to today's semi-finals in 50.22 sec, easily the fastest qualification time of the day despite easing down in the final 20 metres. Long jumper Shara Proctor wasted little energy in qualifying for today's final, needing just one leap of 6.85m to book her place while Eilish McColgan broke her own Scottish record to qualify for the steeplechase final in 9 min 35.82 sec.
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