Athenry sprinter Paul Hession has qualified for the second round of the 200m after a promising third place in Heat six in Beijing this morning.
Hession began the race in lane two, just inside America's Wallace Spearman, the only athlete in the race to have run quicker than the Irishman this summer.
Spearman won out again in a time of 20.46seconds but Hession stayed on his shoulder for the duration and was just edged into third by Norway's Jaysuma Saidy Ndure.
With another race today, his time of 20.59 was quicker than he would have liked but it sees him into Heat four in round two that is scheduled to go at 1.26pm (Irish time).
"I drew a very difficult Heat," Hession told RTE after his race. "I had a bit of a loose canon in the Norwegian guy, so I probably ran quicker than I'd hoped but it's fine, yeah.
"I'm through comfortably and it was easy enough, so I'm looking forward to the next round."
The world's fastest man Usain Bolt is chasing a 100m and 200m double and was comfortable in Heat five behind winner Rondell Sorillo (20.58) in a time of 20.64
Bolt is seeking to become the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to unite golds for the two sprint events after his world record 100m on Saturday.
Whether he can make the leap from his own personal best of 19.67 set two months ago to Michael Johnson's 12-year-old world record of 19.32 is more doubtful.
"I'm not worried about world records," said Bolt, who turns 22 on Thursday, the day after the 200 meters final. "I've got plenty of time for world records in the future."
Also through safely are Britain's Marlon Devonish (20.49), USA's Walter Dix and defending champion Shawn Crawford.
