European champions Dina Asher-Smith, Wojciech Nowicki, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Yaroslava Mahuchikh were among the athletes who safely progressed through qualification rounds as the first track and field session of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 got underway on Friday (2).
Great Britain’s Asher-Smith cruised home in second place behind Poland’s Ewa Swoboda in heat five of the women’s 100m. Both looked in great shape with Swoboda clocking a season’s best 10.99 (+1.0m/s), just 0.02 ahead of Asher-Smith. Another British athlete, Daryll Neita, also impressed with a season’s best of 10.92 (+1.5m/s) to win heat three.
Another notable European qualifiers included 2022 European champion Gina Luckenkemper in 11.08 while Boglarka Takacs set a Hungarian record of 11.10 to ensure her passage into the semifinals.
Reigning Olympic hammer champion Wojciech Nowicki of Poland stayed on track for a title defence after negotiating qualification with a second round 76.32m. Ukraine’s former European U23 champion Mykhaylo Kokhan placed second overall in the qualification with 77.42m.
Ingebrigtsen and Kerr through
Another defending champion is Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and he preserved energy as he ran 3:37:04 while comfortably third in heat three of the men’s 1500m to book his passage to the semi finals.
Reigning world champion Josh Kerr of Great Britain also made serene progress, winning the first heat in 3:35.83.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh returned to the scene of her high jump world record earlier this summer and the Ukrainian icon and was a comfortable qualifier with 1.95m.
By contrast, European silver medallist Angelina Topic from Serbia endured a difficult morning. The 19-year-old hurt her right ankle in warm up but, despite some obvious discomfort, Topic managed to clear 1.92m on her third attempt to progress.
Germany's Leo Neugebauer has made an excellent start to the decathlon. After the opening 100m, long jump and shot put, the world leader heads the field with 2876 points.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics