Athletics: Ciaran O'Lionaird timed his run to perfection in the heats of the 1500 metres this morning to book his place in Thursday's semi-finals. The 24-year-old safely negotiated a tactical heat in Daegu in a time of 3:40.41.
The Flordia-based Corkman, who made an impressive breakthrough earlier this summer, was content to bide his time for much a slow race. And when the time came to make his move, O'Lionaird had plenty in reserve to kick for home and take sixth place.
That was enough to qualify automatically for the semi-finals where O'Lionaird will harbour realistic hopes of making the final itself.
France's Mehdi Baala, who slugged it out on the track with a team mate in Monaco last month, is starting to think he is cursed after falling in today’s heats.
Olympic bronze medallist Baala made headlines when he traded blows with Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad in an extraordinary incident at the finish line at a Diamond League meeting after they both trailed home as backmarkers in the 1,500 meters on July 22nd.
The 33-year-old 2003 world silver medallist was looking good for a place in the semi-finals from the second heat but tripped on the kerb and fell over when coming into the home straight.
"This is really bad luck because things were running well for me in the race, the race was not too fast - just like I like it," he said.
"I have the impression that I am really attracting and collecting trouble these days. First the fight, then I got a small injury in training two days ago and today I fall and do not finish my race."
Jessica Ennis, Britain's brightest hope for athletics gold at next year's London Olympics, lost her heptathlon world title to Russia's Tatyana Chernova.
The 25-year-old trailed the Olympic bronze medallist by 133 points going into the seventh and final event of the competition and the Russian was able to protect her commanding lead comfortably in the 800m.
Bidding to become the first Britain to retain a world title, Ennis had held a 118-point lead after the morning's long jump but her chances of retaining the title she won two years ago all but disappeared in the second event, the javelin throw.
While Chernova managed a best of 52.95 metres with her second attempt in blinding sunshine at the Daegu stadium, Ennis was left counting the cost of failing to register a throw over 39.95.
Derval O’Rourke, meanwhile, is hoping to translate her form in training to the track when she starts her 110m hurdles campaign on Friday.
“My training form has been good but I have not raced as well as I would like,” O’Rourke explained. “At the same time I’m going into Daegu with some good runs under my belt and I’m hoping to go faster.
“I have been training well and I have had a few good runs in pre-season but if I can get close to my Irish record (12.65) then I will be happy and see where that takes me. As long as my times are good enough to qualify me for the final then that’s all that matters. I know that if everything clicks I am capable of going very fast.”
Olive Loughnane, a silver medalist in Berlin two years ago, is the next Irish athlete in action at the World Championships and will take to the road in the 20km walk at 1am Irish time tomorrow morning.