Idowu qualifies for the final with a hop, skip and jump

Defending champion Phillips Idowu today cruised into the triple jump final at the World Championships in Daegu as Usain Bolt returned to the track in trademark fashion.

Briton Idowu jumped 17.17 metres in the first round of qualifying, seven centimetres further than the automatic qualifying mark, to book his place in Sunday’s final with the minimum of fuss. And Bolt was his usual carefree self as he qualified for the semi-finals of the 200m, five days since his stunning disqualification from the 100m final for a false start.

With great rival and world leader Teddy Tamgho out with injury, Idowu is confident he will come good when it matters most to add to Britain’s haul of five medals.

“It was easy and I feel good,” he said. “(Now) I’ve got to go out there and put a good jump in the final.”

Defending champion Bolt played up to the crowd as usual with his pre-race antics, also chatting with competitors in the first heat which suffered a seven-minute delay due to malfunctioning starting equipment. That must have been the last thing Bolt wanted to see, but the Jamaican also shrugged off being out in lane seven to comfortably win the heat in 20.30secs, with Britain’s Christian Malcolm in fourth in 20.66. The British team captain scraped through as a fastest loser. Team-mate James Ellington failed to advance after also finishing fourth in his heat.

There was better news for Britain in the women’s 100m hurdles, with Tiffany Porter advancing to the semi-finals. The women’s 4x400m team of Christine Ohuruogu, Nicola Sanders, Glasgow’s Lee McConnell and Perri Shakes-Drayton qualified for tomorrow’s final with the third fastest time after finishing second in their heat.