The sun was out on day three of the IAAF world championships and there were some bright results for the Flame, with Lauren Boden (ACT) setting a season’s best in the 400m hurdles and Benn Harradine (Vic) qualifying for Tuesday night’s discus final.
 
Harradine was the first Flame athlete in action when he took to the field in Group A of discus qualifying, alongside defending world champion Robert Harting (GER), Olympic champion Gerd Kanter (EST), and Virgilijus Alekna (LTU) and Robert Fazekas (HUN), who both have 70m plus personal bests.
 
With the automatic qualification mark set at 65.50m, Harradine’s first effort went just shy of 60m but resulted in a foul. His second looked to have much more conviction as it fell at 63.49m, which resulted in his sixth place finish at the end of Group A.
 
With the morning sun baring down on the stadium he then took refuge in the little shade available on the in-field, before his final throw of 51.86m. Harradine thenendured a nervous wait as Group B took to the stadium. However, only four athletes in the second group threw further than the Commonwealth Champion, which meant qualification for the final.
 
Piotr Malachowsi (POL) heaved the longest throw of 65.48m, from Group B, while Ehsan Hadadi (IRI) topped the A’s rankings with 65.21m.
 
Harradine said: “I’m a guy who likes to be feeling a lot of tightness when I’m throwing and when it’s so hot your muscles are really long and it’s hard to maintain that sort of tightness. It wasn’t extremely bad but I was just not consistent, which added a little bit of pressure.
 
“It will be a different story at night time, a little bit cooler and just a little bit more relaxed. Once you’re through you can - not relax - but take a breath and then re-motivate yourself and try and smash some throws.”
 
As Harradine learnt of his qualification for the final, Boden was on the track in the first heat of the 400m hurdles. The 23-year-old ran an impressive race, in a heat which included the fastest hurdler the year Kaliese Spencer (JAM), to finish fourth and set a new season’s best time of 55.78.
 
Boden said: “I’ve been training really well and I knew that if I just concentrate on getting my stride pattern I’d be able to run fast. Now the jobs done it’s a relief I’m into the semis. Now I’ve got nothing to lose, I’m going to give it all my all tomorrow night.
 
“My flat speed has gone a lot better now that it ever has been. So it’s been a bit hard to correlate that over to the hurdles, but today I think I executed itpretty well and I took an extra stride into hurdle ten so I can always try and fix that up tomorrow night.”
 
There was disappointment for Youcef Abdi (NSW) in the 3000m steeplechase. The Olympic finalist finished 28th overall having finished eight in the third and final heat, which contained the fastest athlete in the world this year, Brimin Kiprop Kipruto (KEN). 
 
Abdi sat behind him and his compatriot Abraham Kipkiron Chircher for the first few laps in a bid to keep in touch with the top four automatic qualifying spots. However, he was unable to respond when Benjamin Kiplagat (UGA), the Kenyans and Roba Gari (ETH) broke after 2000m.
 
Abdi said: “It was tough. I tried to go with the leaders and make sure I secured the first four places to qualify automatically. I went good for three or four laps and then my body just started to feel a bit tight and it wasn’t responding as good as I thought it would. It was very a hard day, I’m disappointed.”

Athletics Australia