Errol Nolan had to run his race two fractions of a second quicker than the prelims to escape the semifinals. With a 46.47 second split, good for second in his heat Nolan advances to the IAAF World Junior Championship 400-meter finals. The top two athletes from three heats advanced, along with the next two fastest times.
The pace picked up from Tuesday’s preliminary round where Nolan had the fastest time of 46.67 seconds. Marcell Deák Nagy of Hungary won Nolan’s heat, Nagy finished with a time of 46.23 seconds, the fastest split of the semifinals. National champion Kirani James won the second heat with a time of 46.27 seconds. James runs collegiately for the University of Alabama, but is representing Grenada at this event. Joshua Mance who also represents the United States advanced, finishing in 46.43 seconds.
In the finals the pace will pick up again, the winner will likely have to break the 45 second mark. Nolan’s best time in the 400 is a 45.59, which he ran May 29 at the NCAA Division I West Regional. Only Kirani James has a better provisional time of 45.01 seconds. Nolan and James will finally compete against each other in the finals.
Today’s finals begin at approximately 5:40 p.m. CST. Results can be found at iaaf.org and the event is being streamed at www.cbc.ca
Check in Friday to see how Nolan fared.
