Australian pole-vaulter Kurtis Marschall has quashed any fears of a lingering ankle injury by hurling himself into medal contention for Tuesday’s final.
Despite dislocating his ankle earlier in the year which stunted the West Australian’s Olympic preparations, Marschall qualified for the final after clearing the 5.70m bar to tie for ninth.
Marschall will now get a well-deserved rest to prime his body before the final at 1am on Tuesday.
Both of Australia’s male sprint chances failed to advance through to the semifinal of the men’s 100m sprint.
Despite equalling a season-best 10.29sec., Rohan Browning missed out on the semifinals after he finished sixth in heat six.
His time was 0.09 slower than fellow countryman Joshua Azzopardi who crossed the line fourth in heat two, who also did not progress.
Bree Masters posted a season-best time in her 100m heat to cross the line third against a stacked field and become the first Aussie woman through to the semifinals of the 100m dash since 2000.
The 29-year-old crossed the line in a rapid 11.26 to book her spot in the semifinals on Sunday at 1.50am.
Abbey Caldwell won the first-ever women’s 800m repechage to make the semifinals after holding off a late challenge from her Italian rival to finish first and stop the clock at 2min:00.07sec.
Caldwell narrowly missed out on direct qualification after finishing fifth in heat five on Friday but responded in style, winning the first repechage to book a spot in the decider.
Caldwell said she used her undesired result in Friday’s 800m heat as inspiration to qualify for the final.
“I was really happy with (Friday) night and I just wasn’t good enough to go straight through, but that gave me a lot of motivation to get through tonight (Saturday),” she told Channel 9.
The women’s 800m final is on Monday at 9.47pm.
Source Agencies
