In what was a demonstration of Caribbean excellence and depth of talent Steven Gardiner, the 2019 world champion, 2011 champion Kirani James and Jamaicans Sean Bailey, Antonio Watson and Zandrian Barnes all advanced to the semi-final round of the 400m during Sunday’s opening session on day two of the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia’s Michael Joseph also advanced to the next round of competition.

Gardiner, who was unable to defend his title in Eugene, Oregon in 2022, due to injury, indicated that he was ready to claim his second world title, cruising to victory in the opening heat in 44.65. Japan’s Kentaro Sato was the runner-up in the heat in a national record of 44.77. Hungary’s Attila Molnar also set a national record of 44.84 to finish third.

Josephs of St Lucia was fifth in 45.04 and advanced as one of the next sixth fastest after the three automatic qualifiers from each heat.

Wayde van Neikerk, the world record holder, ran 44.57 to win Heat 2 in which Alonzo Russell of the Bahamas was sixth in 46.95. He failed to advance.

Richards, Trinidad and Tobago’s best hope of an individual medal at these championships, eased to a third-place finish in Heat 3 in 45.15 to automatically qualify for the next round. Norways’s Håvard Bentdal Ingvaldsen won the heat in a national record of 44.39 with the USA’s Vernon Norwood trailing in for second place in 44.87.

Grenada’s James, whose coach Harvey Glance died during his final weeks of preparation leading into these championships, won Heat 4 in 44.91. Japan’s Fuga Sato clocked a personal best of 44.97 to finish ahead of Bailey, who finished in 44.98.

Watson comfortably won Heat 5 in 44.77 ahead of the USA’s Quincy Hall, who clocked in at 44.86. Japan’s Yuki Joseph Nakajima was the next automatic qualifier from the heat when he finished third in 45.15.

Barnes was third in the final heat running 45.05 to automatically qualify. His heat was won by Bayapo Ndori of Botswana in 44.72 with Belgium’s Alexander Doom finishing in second place in a personal best 44.92.

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Defending women’s champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, five months removed from the birth of her first child, failed to advance to the semi-final round of the 400m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday.

The Bahamian star finished seventh in Heat 3 in 52.65. The 2022 bronze medallist Sada Williams of Barbados won the heat in 50.78 to keep her quest alive for another global medal in the one-lap sprint.

Meanwhile, all three Jamaicans advanced to the semi-final round of the competition. Jamaican champion Nickisha Price comfortably won Heat 4 in 50.38 over Cuba’s Roxana Gomez, who eased to second place in 50.86 and Gabby Scott of Puerto Rico, who was also an automatic qualifier, finishing third in a season’s best time of 51.07.

Candice McLeod was third in the opening heat in 50.37 to earn her place in the semi-final round. That heat was won by medal favourite Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland in an impressive 50.02. Cynthia Bolingo of Belgium ran a season’s best 50.29 to advance.

Charokee Young, meantime, sneaked into the next round as one of the sixth fastest finishers, when she ended up sixth in the sixth and final heat won by gold medal favourite Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic in a smart time of 49.90.

Young struggled to a time of 51.24.

Guyana’s Aliyah Abrahams was not as fortunate. She ran 51.44 to finish fifth in Heat 5 and failed to advance. Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke, who recently signed a professional contract, won the heat in 50.80.

Reece Prescod has accused UK Athletics of emotional blackmail after his last-minute exit from Great Britain’s relay squad.

The 27-year-old will not race in the 4×100 metres in Budapest after pulling out on the eve of the World Championships this week.

Prescod claims he was told his reputation would suffer if he walked out of the squad but feels he had no option after suffering a hip injury in relay training three weeks ago.

The 2018 100m European silver medallist also revealed he was told he would not be part of the relay set-up in January, only to get a call asking him to return in July.

“The dust needs to settle for a little bit because some of the conversations that I had weren’t necessarily the most pleasant conversations,” he said, after qualifying for Sunday’s 100m semi-final in 10.14 seconds.

“They weren’t very nice and I was a bit upset about some of the conversations. It just wasn’t a nice environment to be in. I had a few different meetings on occasions and it kind of felt a little bit like emotional blackmail a little bit.

“I was kind of like ‘I don’t want to let down the country’ and they (UKA) were like ‘you know your reputation is going to be ruined if you do this.’

“It’s been quite hard, dealing with all the press and all the negativity. I’ve felt quite isolated at these championships if I’m being honest. I’ve felt quite distant from the team.

“But I’ve just had to say ‘you know what Reece, just get as far as you can in these championships and afterwards sit down with (Stephen) Maguire (technical director).'”

Prescod helped Great Britain to world 4x100m bronze in Eugene last year, just his second major senior medal.

He added: “There was a lot of pressure from the federation. It’s not that I didn’t want to be part of the team. I love the boys but I didn’t want to risk hurting myself.

“If I hurt myself in an exchange three weeks ago, for me to do exactly the same thing might potentially compromise running around the bend. So that was the kind of moral of the whole story.

(It’s come from the) hierarchy, if I am being honest. The other athletes are very supportive.”

Zharnel Hughes, Jona Efoloko, Adam Gemili, Jeremiah Azu and Eugene Amo-Dadzie remain part of the squad. British Athletics declined to comment.

What started out as a dream debut for Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell, ended in disappointment, as he was unable to express himself in the men’s shot put final on Saturday’s opening day of the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Campbell, the Jamaican national champion and record holder at 22.22m, made the final with a mark of 20.83m on his third attempt during qualifying, but again struggled to get going.

However, unlike he did in qualifying, Campbell was unable to recover and failed to register a mark when it mattered most.

The event was won by American defending champion Ryan Crouser, who launched the instrument to a Championship Record 23.51m on his final attempt to stamp his authority on the event. He had earlier registered 22.98m in the second round, which already had the gold medal won.

Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri, with a new personal best 22.34m, snatched silver from the other American Joe Kovacs (21.59m).

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Reigning national champion Traves Smikle and 2019 World Championships silver medalist Fedrick Dacres both made it through to the final of the men’s discus throw on day one of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Saturday.

Smikle had the fourth furthest throw in qualifying with 65.71m while Dacres threw 65.45m to qualify with the seventh farthest throw. Roje Stona, who finished second at the Jamaican Trials, had a best throw of 62.67m to finish 20^th overall.

Swedish World and Olympic Champion, Daniel Stahl, led all qualifiers with 66.25mwhile Mykolas Alekna (66.04m) and Kristjan Ceh (65.95m).

Katarina Johnson-Thompson refused to get carried away despite remaining in gold medal contention at the World Championships.

The 2019 world heptathlon champion sits second, 93 points adrift of leader Anna Hall, after the first day in Budapest.

She still faces a battle to return to the global podium with the United States’ Chari Hawkins just five points behind and team-mate Taliyah Brooks a further 13 points adrift.

But, after an Achilles rupture in 2020, Johnson-Thompson remains cautiously optimistic.

She said: “I’m just seeing what I can do. Who would have predicted today?

“Sport is so unpredictable and especially heptathlon. That’s why I don’t like trying to think about what’s going to happen in the future. I’m just trying to take each event as it comes.

“It’s really close behind me as well. All I need to do is just keep knocking on the door, stay in the flow and who knows what can happen?

“I just want a medal. I’m definitely in amongst it.”

A storm postponed the action by an hour in the morning and forced Johnson-Thompson to wait.

The 30-year-old ran 13.50 seconds in her 100 metres hurdles heat, before clearing 1.86m in the high jump.

It left her fourth overall with 2104 points – 41 adrift of leader Hall – before the evening session.

A best of 13.64m in the shot put dropped her to joint fifth before victory in her 200m heat in 23.48s boosted her medal hopes heading into the second day.

She added: “Today has been one of the most gruelling days of heptathlon I’ve ever experienced. We are all feeling it and we’re all talking to each other and asking, why are we so tired?

“I think it was the delay, waking up at six, warming up and then being told ‘no, stop.'”

Zharnel Hughes, the fastest man in the world this year, clocked 10 seconds in his 100m heat ahead of Sunday’s semi-finals and final.

Hughes, the British 100m and 200m record holder, won his race while Reece Prescod, who pulled out of the relay squad earlier this week, qualified in third in his heat.

Eugene Amo-Dadzie, an accountant who is due back to work once the Championships finish, was second in his heat on his Great Britain debut.

The 31-year-old has taken annual leave to compete in Budapest and returns to work as a senior management accountant for property developer Berkeley Group on August 29.

“I’m on the world stage. I say to people who don’t really know track and field ‘I’m at the World Cup of athletics’ and they’re like ‘OK’,” he said, after running 10.10s.

“For me, that’s incredible because this is beyond a dream. I didn’t grow up dreaming to do this but, by the grace of God, I found myself doing this.

“I’ve had a lot of support from all the different accountant bodies. They’re like ‘yo, you’re putting accountants on the map’. We’re not just these boring stiff squares sat at the office typing away.”

Great Britain captain Laura Muir, who has endured a disrupted year after splitting from long-term coach Andy Young in March, was second in her 1500m heat in the morning session.

She clocked four minutes 03.50 seconds behind the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan.

Kenya’s defending champion Faith Kipyegon remains the overwhelming favourite and won her heat in 4:02.62.

Great Britain’s Katie Snowden and Melissa Courtney-Bryant also progressed to Sunday’s semi final.

Muir said: “Job done, I wanted to qualify with as little drama as possible.

“I was a little disappointed we weren’t in the rain. I would have been happy to crack on but I know there’s a lot of electrical equipment and technical equipment and the rain doesn’t suit everybody.

“It’s a fast track, I think it’ll be an exciting champs. As soon as I did a couple of strides it felt nice. There’s always a bit of scrapping and spiking but I felt comfortable.

“I saw Sifan go past and I was expecting that but I was scared she would go and everyone would come. I kept looking up and saw there was a gap.”

In the men’s 1500m Josh Kerr, who won Olympic bronze in Tokyo, Neil Gourley and Elliot Giles all reached Sunday’s semis, with last year’s world champion Jake Wightman out with injury.

Jazmin Sawyers, the European indoor champion, finished 22nd in qualifying to miss out on the long jump final with a best of just 6.41m.

Teenage sensation Jaydon Hibbert safely advanced to the final of the men’s triple jump on day one of the IAAF World Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.

The 18-year-old NCAA Indoor and Outdoor champion and record holder opened his qualifying series with a 16.99 effort before booking his spot in the final with a massive 17.70m in the second round.

That distance is the fourth furthest jump in the world this year and the second furthest of his career, trailing only his world leading and world junior record 17.87m done at the SEC Outdoor Championships in May.

Hibbert will enter Monday's final as one of the big favorites for gold, especially after the withdrawal of Olympic champion, Pedro Pablo Pichardo, on the eve of the championships.

Dina Asher-Smith believes she is racing in the “golden age” of women’s sprinting.

The 27-year-old is ready to start her World Championships campaign in Budapest.

Asher-Smith, who finished fourth in the 100m at the Worlds last year despite equalling her British record of 10.83 seconds, and Daryll Neita race in the 100m heats on Sunday.

They are aiming to challenge Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson, who completed a clean sweep of the medals in Eugene 13 months ago. Asher-Smith took 200m bronze behind Jackson and Fraser-Pryce.

“I definitely do think we’re in like a golden age,” said Asher-Smith. “It will be remembered as kind of like a (Usain) Bolt era but on the side of the women’s, and far more competitive. There are a lot of women in that arena.

“You say Shelley-Ann and Elaine would be like, ‘ah?’ Then even this year, Shericka will be like, ‘er?’ There are just so many.

“I feel like when there’s so many people running fast, there’s no point thinking about other people. You’ve just got to focus on yourself.

“If you start focusing on one or two, you’ll forget about the other seven, who are also incredibly quick. There’s lots of very, very talented and very experienced women racing.

“I think we have one of the strongest and what will hopefully be the most exciting events of this World Championships.

“There’s a lot of depth. All you can do is focus on yourself, right? That’s all I can do. I can only control myself. So that’s kind of what I am doing.”

Neita, who along with Asher-Smith is also running in the 200m and 4x100m relay, goes into the Championships ranked seventh in the world in both individual events.

She said: “I’m feeling very confident. It’s going to be the first time I’m doing two events and then onto the relay as well. So it’s very different this year, because I’m normally going for the 100 metres, which is we know is stacked.

“Failing to make the final at worlds last year was very bittersweet, running the fastest ever semi-final not to make it.

“The 200m is still a pretty new event for me but I’m feeling very confident and I’m just going there this year, very relaxed, not putting too much pressure on myself, but just really want to have fun and execute and just achieve as well as I can.”

There were no surprises, as Jamaica’s trio of Oblique Seville, Rohan Watson and Ryiem Forde all secured their spot in the men’s 100 metres semi-finals, along with Guyana’s Emanuel Archibald, after all safely navigated their respective heats on the opening day of the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Saturday.

After a series of delays and false starts, Seville, who just missed the podium in Eugene, ran a comfortable race from lane seven in heat five and stopped the clock in 9.86s, which equalled his personal best.

The 22-year-old, who was the fastest qualifier across all seven heats, won ahead of one of the gold medal favourites in American Fred Kerley, who cruised to 9.99s. Belize’s Brandon Jones, who was also in the heat, placed seventh in 10.95s.

Seville pointed out that he had no concerns about the delays, as the experience gained over the years prepared him for what transpired.

“It is something that happens often in Jamaica, so it actually prepared me for now on the big stage. It was just for me to go out and execute and run a good time, I didn’t expect it but my coach did because he told me I am in the best of shape, so it was just for me to go out there and do what I have to,” Seville said shortly after performance.

Jamaica’s national championship Watson recovered from a slight stumble at the start to place second in the following heat.

He clocked 10.11s, behind Japan’s Sani Brown, who clocked a season’s best 10.07s, with Italy’s Lamonth Jacobs, also finishing in a season’s best 10.15s, as he continues to work his way back to form.

British Virgin Islands Rikkoi Brathwaite (10.18s) and Terrence Jones (10.32s) of Bahamas, fifth and sixth respectively in the same heat.

Earlier, another Jamaican Forde, also comfortably secured his spot, clocking 10.01s for second behind Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, who clocked a flat 10.00s in winning heat one.

Favourite Noah Lyles was the second fastest in qualifying, as he stormed to 9.95s in heat two, with the powerfully built Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala (9.97s), joining him.

Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda’s Cejhae Greene (10.23s) missed out on the semi-finals after placing sixth in heat four, which was won by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo in 10.11s.

Guyana’s Emanuel Archibald, who ran earlier this morning to progress to the heats, successfully went one step further as he booked his spot in the semi-finals.

Archibald was given joint third with a time of 10.20s, along with Japan’s Hiroki Yanagita, behind South Africa’s Akani Simbine, who won the final heat in 9.97s, just edging American Cristian Coleman (9.98s).

The semi-finals are scheduled for Sunday at 9:35am Jamaica time.

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Jamaica’s Ackelia Smith successfully made it through to the final of the women’s long jump on day one of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday.

Smith, who came into the championships as the world leader with 7.08m, was in a spot of bother after fouling her first two jumps before producing 6.78m in the third and final round of the preliminaries to advance with the fourth furthest jump of the morning.

“I know I got a little bit close for the first one and the second one, I over-pushed but I’m really glad I got it down on my third attempt,” Smith said after the prelims.

The Texas star says she’s confident heading into the final.

“I’m pretty confident. I know my abilities. As long as I get it right, I should be up there so I’m not too worried.”

The qualifiers for tomorrow’s final were led by American champion Tara Davis-Woodhall (6.87m), Burkina Faso’s Marthe Koala (6.84m) and Italy’s Larissa Iapichino (6.73m).

Jamaica’s other competitor in the event, national champion Tissanna Hickling, produced a best distance of 6.29m to finish 30^th overall.

The final is scheduled for Sunday at 9:55am Jamaica Time.

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It was mission accomplished for Jamaica’s middle-distance runner Adelle Tracey, who booked her spot in the women’s 1,500 metres semi-finals following an efficient execution in the heats on the opening day of the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Saturday.

The Great Britain-born Tracey, running in the final of four heats, finished fifth in 4:03.67 to take one of the six automatic spots through to the semi-final scheduled for Sunday at 10:05am.

Tracey, 30, ran her usual patient race in mid-pack of the 13-athlete field, before gradually pushing closer to the leaders and remained comfortable from there.

Though she ran into traffic problems which forced her wide on the bell lap when the top six was tightly bunched, Tracey said it didn’t affect her much, as she was always focused on taking the safest route.

“It was just that everybody was trying to run to make sure they are safe so there was a little bit of hustling. I think sometimes you just have to play it safe, and I have been training well, so I knew that going wide was okay to do if it meant that I had a clear run and could really work into the line to make sure I got that spot,” Tracey explained.

“I am happy to go through easily and qualify to the next round, it was great, very happy to tick a box and get that qualifying spot,” she added.

Due back on the track in several hours for what will an event more competitive semi-final run, the cheerful athlete is intent on making the most of the short break.

“Now it’s just about recovery and getting as much rest as I need, get some treatment and ice bath until the next round,” Tracey noted.

You can catch live action of the 2023 World Athletic Championships by downloading the Sportsmax App.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson recovered from a nervous heptathlon opening on the first morning of the World Championships.

The 2019 world champion sits fourth after a delayed start at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest.

A storm postponed the action by an hour and forced Johnson-Thompson to wait but she struggled in the first event.

The 30-year-old ran 13.50 seconds in her 100m hurdles heat, well behind the American trio of Taliyah Brooks, Anna Hall and Chari Hawkins.

Before her Achilles rupture in 2020, Johnson-Thompson had run a personal best of 13.09 seconds – en route to winning the world title in 2019 – and clocked a season’s best of 13.34 seconds at the British Championships last month.

She entered the high jump at 1.77m, clearing at the first attempt, before eventually leaping 1.80m on her third jump to settle the nerves.

A clearance of 1.86m left her second in the high jump and fourth overall with 2104 points – 41 adrift of leader Hall – with the shot put and 200m to come in the evening session in Hungary.

Great Britain captain Laura Muir, who has endured a disrupted year after splitting from long-term coach Andy Young in March, was second in her 1500m heat.

She clocked four minutes 03.50 seconds behind the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan.

Kenya’s defending champion Faith Kipyegon remains the overwhelming favourite and won her heat in four minutes 02.62 seconds.

Great Britain’s Katie Snowden and Melissa Courtney-Bryant also progressed to Sunday’s semi final.

Muir said: “Job done, I wanted to qualify with as little drama as possible.

“I was a little disappointed we weren’t in the rain. I would have been happy to crack on but I know there’s a lot of electrical equipment and technical equipment and the rain doesn’t suit everybody.

“It’s a fast track, I think it’ll be an exciting champs. As soon as I did a couple of strides it felt nice. There’s always a bit of scrapping and spiking but I felt comfortable.

“I saw Sifan go past and I was expecting that but I was scared she would go and everyone would come. I kept looking up and saw there was a gap.”

Jazmin Sawyers, the European indoor champion, finished 22nd in qualifying to miss out on the long jump final with a best of just 6.41m.

The 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Joe Brier, Laviai Nielsen, Rio Mitcham and Yemi Mary John reached Saturday night’s final in three minutes 11.19 seconds.

Nielsen said: “It was fast and loud, so I think that gave us an extra lift. We have all been itching to go so we are pleased with how we have performed as a team.”

Zharnel Hughes, the fastest man in the world this year, runs in the 100m heats in the evening with Reece Prescod and Eugene Amo-Dadzie.

Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell is off to a dream start on debut, as he secured his spot in the men’s shot-put final on Saturday’s opening day of the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Campbell, who earlier this year became the first Jamaican man to go beyond 22m when he launched the instrument to a national record of 22.22m, took his time to get going in Group A of qualifying, but eventually found his rhythm.

Though he missed the automatic qualifying mark of 21.40m, Campbell’s 20.83m on his third attempt, was good enough to make the final as it ranked him 10^th across the two groups.

Prior to achieving the mark which placed him sixth in his group, the 27-year-old Campbell, opened with an underwhelming 19.83m and registered no mark on his second attempt.

Campbell rued a lack of warm up and the wet conditions for his slow start.

"I didn't get through the complete warm up, the rain poured so I didn't get to warm up around the back because there was lightning and all that, so I came out here and tried to force it. the ring was very slippery, so that caused a lot of downhill performance today, but as we progressed the ring got dryer and I could actually feel the grip and that is how the last one came together," the vibrant thrower shared.

While his national record ranked him fourth coming into the championships, Campbell remains grounded where his medal prospects are concerned.

"Honestly, I don't want to start getting into that right now because later on (the final is to come). So, the job is not done yet, for now I am holding it together, I want to get some food in my system, take a nap and then I will be back," he said.

"It is a level playing field...that's the thing about competition, anything can happen on the day. So, I am confident in myself, I believe when it is necessary, I can pull something together just like I did with this last throw. It's something I have been doing consistently all season, so anything is possible," Campbell added.

Brazil’s Darlan Romani headlines the finalist with a big season’s best of 22.37m. The big American pair of two-time World Champion Joe Kovacs (21.59m) and Olympic Champion Ryan Crouser (21.48m) are also in the mix for the final scheduled for later this evening at 1:35pm Jamaica time.

You can catch live action of the 2023 World Athletic Championships by downloading the Sportsmax App.

Jamaica missed out on the cut for the final of the Mixed 4x400 metres relay, as they could only manage fifth in heat two of the event on Saturday's opening day of the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

The Jamaican quartet of Demish Gaye, Natoya Goule-Toppin, Malik James-King and Stacey-Ann Williams, running in that order, struggled from the off and was at the back of the pack for the first two legs.

In fact, it was on the third leg that James King tried to force the initiative and gradually made progress, but faded in the latter stages, leaving Williams with much to do on anchor.

Despite facing an uphill task, Williams showed grit and determination to bring Jamaicans from eighth into fifth and ninth across the two heats in a season’s best 3:14.05.

They finished behind the Femke Bol led Dutch team, who won in 3:12.12, followed by France (3:12.25) and Czech Republic (3:12.52), with fourth-placed Germany taking one of the non-automatic qualifying spots.

United States with a World lead 3:10.41, Great Britain, with a national record 3:11.19, Belgium (3:11.81) and Ireland (3:13.90), are the other finalists.

You can catch live action of the 2023 World Athletic Championships by downloading the Sportsmax App.

NCAA Championships runner-up, Roje Stona, is looking forward to participating in his first IAAF World Championships set for August 19-27 in Budapest.

The Jamaican Arkansas standout is currently sixth on the world rankings this year with a best throw of 68.64m done to win at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Baton Rouge in May.

He enters Budapest as one of Jamaica’s biggest medal contenders in the field events.

“I’m looking forward to it. I think it will be a good competition. I’ve trained for the last couple weeks after the National Trials. I’m used to the extended season so it’s just for me to go out there and compete for a medal,” Stona said.

Those National Trials saw Stona throw 65.92m to finish second behind Traves Smikle’s 66.12m. 2019 World Championships silver medalist Fedrick Dacres threw 65.79m to complete Jamaica’s team for Budapest.

“It was a good experience. I was happy with the result in terms of finishing top three and getting a solid mark over 65m,” Stona said.

These performances mark a steady improvement for Jamaica in the event. Stona (6^th), Dacres (7^th) and Smikle (9^th) are all in the top 10 in the world this year in the event. Stona’s best performance this season was his aforementioned 68.64m effort at the SEC Championships. Dacres threw 68.57m to win at the Tucson Elite Classic in Arizona in May while Smikle threw a personal best 68.14m at the King of the Ring event at the Excelsior High School on February 11.

“I’m glad to see that there’s a lot of improvement in the event in the country. I’m looking forward to competing with the guys,” Stona said.

At major championships, throwers will get up to three throws in the preliminaries but Stona is hoping he only needs one to achieve the automatic qualifying distance to the final which is 66.00m.

“If you make it to these competitions you are guaranteed three throws so, obviously, I’m going to try to make sure that I qualify from round one to not put myself under any pressure,” he said.

Action can be seen live on the SportsMax app.