by Stuart Weir
The 200 meters and 400 meters should have exciting finals, per this piece by Stuart Weir. The Commonwealth Games is coming to the end of the athletics portion, with Sunday as the final day.
Semi-finals
We now know the finalists in the 200 and 400, men and women.
The three fastest in the Women’s 200m were:
Elaine Thompson-Herah 22.63
Favour Ofili (Nigeria) 22.66
Christine Mboma (Namibia)NAM 22.93
Copyright Bobby Gavin
for Scottish Athletics
I was also delighted to see Beth Dobbin, running for Scotland, reach the final after a year when her training was disrupted by illness.
In the 400m, Vikki Ohuruogu (England) was fastest with 51.00, followed by Sada Williams, World Championship medalist from Barbados. In a British-dominated event, Ama Pipi, Jodie Williams, and Zoey Clark also reached the final.
Vikki said: “I’m just really happy to make it to the final. I knew the semi was going to be quite tough, but I just needed to execute my race plan, and I did. For the next one, it’s more of the same; being in a final automatically raises your game and hopefully makes you run a bit faster”.
In the men’s 200m semis, the two fastest were Zharnel Hughes (England) 20.32 and Jereem Richards (Trinidad) 20.40. Hughes said: “The work is not done yet, though; I’ve still got another run to go. There is no point going out there and trying to run anything stupid. I just want to qualify. The work is not done yet, though; I’ve still got another run to go. There is no point going out there and trying to run anything stupid. I just wanted to qualify.”
In the men’s 400, Matthew Hudson-Smith was the fastest at 45.77 – despite the fact that he walked the final few meters. He commented: “I’ve been saying all year I want to end the year with three medals. I started off on the right track in Eugene, so now it’s part two. I’m making up for the lost time.”
