Elaine Thompson makes it to 100-meter semi-finals

CAIRO – 6 August 2017: Jamaican Olympic champion Elaine Thompson easily qualified on Saturday for the semi-finals of the women’s 100-meter at the World Championships in Athletics.

According to Reuters, Elaine could afford to ease up, as she finished in 11.05 seconds, while her main rivals also comfortably survived the first stage in front of the crowd of 50,000.

Elaine Thompson is a Jamaican track and field sprinter. She rose to prominence as part of the gold medal-winning team in the 4x100-meter relay at the 2015 World Championships, where she also won a silver medal in the 200-meter.

American Tori Bowie, who was behind the Elaine in Rio last year, won her heat in exactly the same time.

Dutch athlete Dafine Schippers will run in both the 100 and 200–meter races. She started her bid for a double by finishing second in her heat in 11.08 seconds, behind Ivorian Marie Josee, still good enough to qualify comfortably.

German sprinter Gina Lueckenkemper produced an impressive performance as she won the first heat in 10.95 seconds, the best record in her career. She became the first German to break 11 seconds since Kartin Krabble at the 1991 World Championships.

The 20-year-old Lueckenkemper said, “It was amazing, and I am absolutely speechless after that race. It was a dream to run sub-11 inside this stadium at these championships. This feels so good.”

Lueckenkemper’s compatriot Tatjana Pinto is the only sprinter to be disqualified.

English runner Desiree Henry, who was one of the torchbearers at the London Olympics five years ago, qualified after finishing fourth in her heat.