The stadium action on the opening day of the 20th World Athletics Championships began with the men´s shot put qualification. Multiple European and world indoor medallist, Czech Tomáš Staněk managed to put on a performace of 20.67m and advanced to his third outdoor global final. There he could not, however, repeat the performance from the morning session and took overall 12th place.
Simultaneously, one of the brightest European stars, entered into the competition in the men´s pole vault. Manolo Karalis of Greece cleared 5.75m which was just enough for him to make it safely to the final, taking place on Monday.
Canadian Jerome Blake showcased two stable performaces, at first clocking 10.05 in the heats of the 100m, then cutting off two hundreths of a second in the semifinal, booking overall 9th place with 10.03. His form and the top speed gave us a great invitiation to follow him also in the 200m, starting on Wednesday.
The most experienced member of our team, hammer throw world record holder, Anita Wlodarczyk demonstrated her ability to prepare for the peak of the season and advanced to her sixth World Championships final. Her past final appearances resulted in four golds so far. Her qualification result of 73.69m is her second-best of the season.
Czech Jan Štefela cleared 2.25m in his second attempt to avoid any troubles on his way to the high jump final. At just 24 years of age this will be his 7th finals appearance at the major championships in a row. The European indoor silver medallist will begin his fight for the podium on Tuesday evening.
In the heats of the 400m, both of our men advanced into the semifinal. Attila Molnár, amazed the fans with another great improvement of his own national record. The mark now stands at 44.55. He also moved to the 18th place in the European all-time toplists.
Multiple global medallist and legend of the event, Kirani James of Grenada, also took the direct spot running 44.66 only 18 hundreths of a second shy of his season best. The semifinal is scheduled on Tuesday evening
Photo: Sportmedia Agency
