Torrie Lewis’s breakthrough championship rolls on. The national record holder and 100m medallist won her 200m semi-final in 22.64 in cold conditions to book her place in tomorrow’s final, while Lachlan Kennedy extended his own campaign to the half-lap, advancing on time in 20.12 (+2.3).
Lewis, drawn in lane 7 for the first semi, had to work for it. She ran strongly down the straight but so did Jamaica’s Alana Reid and England’s Success Eduan, with Lewis split from Reid in a photo finish at 22.64 — aided by a huge +4.7 tailwind — and Eduan just one-hundredth behind, left waiting on the other semis to learn her fate.
But with Scotstoun being cold, and not the just its swirling winds, the wind gauge wasn’t definitive of the quality of the performance.
The one to beat in the final is British Virgin Islands teenager Adaejah Hodge, who eased down through the line in the second semi and still stopped the clock at a Games Record of 22.01 (+1.7), winning by almost half a second.
But there is a bigger number in the conversation for Lewis. Melinda Gainsford-Taylor’s national record of 22.23 has stood since 1997, and while the semis were run in cool conditions of 8-10 degrees, a warmer evening and a favourable legal wind in the final could put the 29-year-old mark under genuine threat.
The semis marked the end of the road for Australia’s other 200m contenders. Monique Hanlon broke 23 seconds for just the second time in her career with a 22.90 (+1.7) in the second semi, but with 22.81 the slowest non-automatic mark across the three races, it wasn’t enough to progress.
Mia Gross ran 23.12 (+1.5) from lane 8 in the third semi. Swallowed up by the athletes inside her within the first 50 metres, she ran a strong straight to hold her own for fourth. Her individual campaign is over, but she looms as a valuable asset for the mixed 4x400m relay.
In the men’s event, Kennedy is the sole Australian survivor, and he arrives in the final in the form of his life. Running from lane 8 in the fastest of the three semis, won by South Africa’s Sinesipho Dambile (19.82) with Canada’s Aaron Brown (19.90) also under 20 seconds, Kennedy clocked 20.12, with only the +2.3 tailwind denying him an official personal best. It is the fastest he has ever run — he didn’t line up in the once-in-a-lifetime wind conditions of the Australian Championships 200m final — and as the third-fastest time across the semis, it suggests a second podium of these Games may not be out of the question.
Aidan Murphy and Calab Law couldn’t carry their Australian Championships form to Glasgow. The pair ran 19.88 and 20.21 respectively in April’s national final, but managed only 20.65 and 20.85 overseas in the lead-up, and their runs of 20.70 (+3.5) and 20.60 (+2.0) aligned with that recent form, leaving them 21st and 14th overall. Law will now turn his attention to the 4x100m relay.
Later in the session, Michelle Jenneke finished fifth in the 100m hurdles — her fourth consecutive Commonwealth Games final.
