Devon Allen easily moves through to the Olympic 110HH semis...

TOKYO--Former Renton resident Devon Allen's (Paul Merca photo) march to the finals of the 110 hurdles at the Olympic track & field competition began Tuesday night with a victory in his first round heat at Olympic Stadium.

Allen, the University of Oregon standout and three time US national champion, ran the third fastest time of the evening in winning the fifth and final heat in 13.21, .16 ahead of France's Pascal Martinot-Lagarde.

Only Grant Holloway (13.02) of Team USATF in heat 1, and Jamaica's Ronald Levy (13.17) in heat 3 ran faster across the five heats than Allen.

For Allen, the next order of business is the semifinals at 11:00 am Wednesday morning/7:00 pm Tuesday evening Seattle time.

In the halfway mark of the track and field competition at these Olympics, four finals were contested this evening.

Teenagers went 1-2 in the women's 800, as Athing Mu of Team USATF, the NCAA champion at 400 meters and the Olympic Trials winner at 800, set a new American record, running 1:55.21 to give the USA its first Olympic gold medal since Madeline Manning in 1968.

Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain took second in 1:55.88, and Oregon alum Raevyn Rogers was third in 1:56.81.

Sweden's Mondo Duplantis won the men's pole vault with a clearance of 19-9 (6.02m), while Chris Nilsen of the USA was second in a personal best 19-7 (5.97m), and defending Olympic champ Thiago Braz was third at 19-3 (5.87m).

Jamaica's Elaine Thompson completed the 100/200 double at these Olympics, winning the 200 in a national record 21.53.

Namibia's Christine Mboma took second in a world under-20 record 21.81, and US Olympic Trials winner Gabby Thomas was third in 21.87.

In the women's hammer, Poland's Anita Wlodarczyk won her third straight Olympic title with a mark of 257-6 (78.48m), followed by Zheng Wang of China (252-8/77.03m) and Malwina Kopron (247-8/75.49m) of Poland.

In addition to Allen's semifinal race Wednesday morning at 11:00 am (7:00 pm Tuesday in Seattle), Washington alum Gianna Woodruff of Panama goes in the finals of the 400 hurdles at 11:30 am (7:30 pm Tuesday in Seattle).

The women's 1500 meter semifinals will be contested Wednesday evening at 7 pm Tokyo time/3 am Seattle time, as Marta Pen Freitas of Portugal, who runs for the Brooks Beasts, goes in the second semifinal, after winning a protest after being knocked down in her first round heat Monday.

Results and start lists are available through the home page of the World Athletics Tokyo Olympics microsite.

NOTE: The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, USA Track & Field, & World Athletics contributed to this report.

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