UW alum Gianna Woodruff easily advances to finals in Pan Am Games 400H...

SANTIAGO, Chile--Under rainy and grey skies with temperatures in the mid-50s, University of Washington alum Gianna Woodruff of Panama (Paul Merca file photo) advanced to the finals in the women's 400 hurdles Wednesday afternoon at the Pan Am Games contested at the Coliseo del Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez.

The four-time world championships competitor and Tokyo Olympic Games finalist went out hard through the first half of the race, then eased up over the last three hurdles to finish third in a time of 58.68, as Costa Rica's Daniela Rojas won in 58.16.

The top three and the two fastest times out of the two combined heats advanced to Friday's finals at 1:35 pm Seattle time (5:35 am local time).

Woodruff, who got as far as the semifinals at the world championships in Budapest in August, is the top seed in the meet with a season best of 54.46, run back in June at the Bislett Games Diamond League meet in June.

Current Husky Nastassja Campbell, the NCAA runner up, goes in the women's pole vault on Thursday. The women's vault gets underway at 1:30 pm Pacific/5:30 pm local time.

The link to live results and the track & field time schedule for the Pan Am Games is available here. A free live stream of the Pan Am Games is available here. 

NOTE: The Santiago 2023 LOC contributed to this report.

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