Australia’s fastest woman Torrie Lewis has surged into the semi-finals of the 100m on the opening night of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo and declared – even after setting a new national record – that she can go faster.
The 20-year-old finished third in her heat behind American Sha’Carri Richardson and Jamaican Shericka Jackson with a time of 11.08s despite a headwind of 0.8m/s.
“I was super nervous for this competition because I knew in training that these are the times I can hit – actually, this is the slowest time in my mind I had – so hopefully I can just build on that,” Lewis said.
After lowering her own national record by two hundredths of a second, Lewis – who has moved to the Netherlands this year to train under coach Laurent Meuwly – said she has plenty of improvement left.
“Another one [national record], yeah, now we’ll make it another one, then another one,” she said.
Lewis plans to also run the 200m and 4x100m relay in Tokyo, and she still believes an appearance in the 100m final tomorrow night is not out of the question.
“If I do as well as I think I can, I can make a final, but you know, it’s going to be very tough, and I’m happy with my time now, so we’ll just see how it goes tomorrow,” Lewis said.
Bree Rizzo, who revealed on Saturday she has been battling long Covid for much of the year, finished sixth in her heat, while Ella Connolly also missed out on the semis after finishing seventh.
A glum Rohan Browning missed out on progressing through to the semi-finals in the men’s 100m by one hundredth of a second.
The national champion ran 10.16s with a headwind of 0.8m/s to finish fifth, and was in the last qualifying position until the final heat, which was run in still conditions, saw him drop out.
Browning started well but faded in the final metres. “Just the top end [speed] went a bit missing,” he said. “It was disappointing, I feel like I had actually had a great prep, everything was really good, so I don’t really have any excuse, just didn’t run a great race.”
Jess Hull opened a busy Tokyo schedule with a straightforward victory in her 1500m heat, saying afterwards that “any reassurance I needed, I got it tonight”.
The Paris 2024 silver medallist is also running the 800m later in the championships to follow in the footsteps of her father Simon who was a national-level runner in the two-lapper. But Hull said she is focused on the longer distance for now “before I become an 800m runner on Wednesday”.
Hull said she was “very surprised” to hear of the withdrawal of Ethiopian Diribe Welteji, one of the 1500m medal contenders, due to an anti-doping dispute with World Athletics. “[It was] not something I’ve really predicted at all in having competed against her very often,” she said.
Linden Hall joins Hull in the 1500m semi-finals after she finished fourth in her heat.
Pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall secured his place in Monday’s final, clearing 5.75m with just a single miss at 5.70m. Sweden’s Olympic champion Armand Duplantis was one of four athletes to be successful in every attempt.
“It will definitely take 5.95m, I reckon, 5.90m might not get a medal, a bunch of guys are looking in really good shape,” he said. “I think 5.95m if not 6m.”
In the morning session, Australia’s race walkers performed well in the 35km in stifling conditions, led by Rebecca Henderson who finished ninth behind women’s winner María Pérez from Spain.
“I knew on my best day I could probably be around that eighth to 12th and that happened, so I’m really happy,” Henderson said.
Rhydian Cowley was best of the Australian men finishing in 11th, having overcome a hamstring injury that curtailed his preparations.
Henderson and Cowley will race again in the 20km event in a week’s time.
