Kirani James into 400m semis but Bahamas issues warning

Kirani James in the Mixed Zone

by Michael Bascombe

Reporting from Istanbul, Turkey

ISTANBUL, Turkey, March 9, 2012 - World 400 metres champion Kirani James of Grenada leads a group of Caribbean athletes going into Friday night’s semi-final of the Men’s 400m at the IAAF World Indoor Championships here.

James stopped the clock at 46.64 seconds to win heat two and the second fastest qualifying time behind Demetrius Pinder of the Bahamas (46.49).

Tabarie Henry of the United States’ Virgin Islands with a season’s best 46.71 completed the top three qualifiers, and former NCAA competitors. Luguelin Santos of the Dominica Republic posted a personal best of 47.07, Chris Brown of the Bahamas (47.28), Erison Hurtault of Dominica (47.63) and jarring Solomon of Trinidad and Tobago (47.82) are the remaining Caribbean qualifiers. Trinidad’s Lalonde Gordon was disqualified.

James admitted that it was a competitive race and is not taking his competitors for granted.

“This was a very good race for all the guys, very competitive,” he said. “My aim is to get better and better – with time and my technique.”

“I cannot take the other athletes for granted. But at the same time I try not to worry too much about the others,” he said. “There is a game plan, of course.”

His game plan will have to kick in the semi-finals as the Bahamas sent a strong warning that they are preparing to retain the World Championship. Brown won the event in Valencia, Spain in 2008.

“The title belongs to us (Brown) and we just want to stay strong. We will also run the relay and you can expect good things from us,” Pinder said.

“I ran comfortably and just wanted to go through. I will now prepare for the semi-finals.”

The Grenadian quarter-miler will compete in Heat three of the semi-finals, running out of lane eight, at 8:22 p.m. local time (2:22 p.m. Eastern Caribbean Time). His strongest challengers in this group are Nigel Levine of the United Kingdom with a season’s best of 45.71 and Nery Brenes of Costa Rica (46.77).

Henry and Pinder will open the semis running in lanes four and six respectively. American Gil Roberts will start in lane five.

Brown, the defending champion, is in lane six in the second semi-final and his main challengers should be Calvin Smith of the United States and Richard Buck of the UK.