Ex-WSU Cougar Louie Hinchliffe wins first round heat of men's 100m at Olympics over Noah Lyles...

SAINT-DENIS, France--Former Washington State sprinter Louie Hinchliffe (photo courtesy World Athletics) of Great Britain may have opened the eyes of casual track and field fans, or at least those in the United States who got up early to watch the first round heats of the men's 100 meter dash at the Olympic track and field competition at the Stade de France in the Paris suburb.

Running in the third of eight heats, Hinchliffe, the reigning NCAA 100 meter champ at the University of Houston after transferring from WSU, was not the man to beat in the eyes of the fans watching live or on television, as American Noah Lyles, the reigning world champion, was the focus.

Hinchliffe got a good start, but his University of Houston teammate, Shaun Maswanganyi of South Africa, got a better start, and was ahead through the first 50 meters.

The British national champ made his move just past the 50 meter mark and started to pull away from Maswanganyi, when Lyles made his late race charge, passing the South African.

With the top three assured of advancing to the semifinals on Sunday, Lyles eased up, while Hinchliffe kept the pressure on, winning in 9.98. Lyles was second in 10.04, and Maswanganyi was third in 10.06.

“It was good to get him back after London, it was a good feeling,” he said, after beating Lyles to the line.

“I wasn’t really thinking too much about him, he wasn’t really near me, so I wasn’t really thinking too much about who was in the race."

“I think the pressure and environment will bring more out of me, trying to get to an Olympic final."

“I’m just running my races at the moment, I’m not really thinking too much about results, I don’t really want to chase results," Hinchliffe said in the mixed zone.

Washington alum Kieran Lumb of Canada finished fifth in the first of two repechage heats in the men's 1500, running 3:35.76.

Lumb worked his way into the top three, positioning himself fourth at 400 meters in 57.5, as Australian Stewart McSweyn led at 57.1.

The Vancouver native moved up to third, going through 800 at 1:55.3, and maintained his position through 1200 in 2:53.9, while France's Azeddine Habz got to the front.

Over the last 200 meters, the top three changed order, as Cathal Doyle of Ireland, and Ossama Meslek of Italy all shot past Lumb.

Doyle won the heat in 3:34.92, with Habz second at 3:35.10, and Meslek was third at 3:35.32.

“I knew there was a good chance that Stewart McSweyn was going to take it out hard. So the plan was tentatively to key up with him and make it a hard last 800 meters. I did that well, but not quite well enough,” Lumb said

In the second heat, former Husky Sam Tanner finished 13th in 3:40.71. 

Tanner started in the top three through the first 800 but struggled to hang on past the kilometer mark. Italy's Federico Riva won the heat in a personal best 3:32.84.

As day 2 (technically day 3, with the race walk contested Thursday on the streets of Paris) at the Stade de France concluded, there were four finals contested plus the second day of the men's decathlon.

Oregon native Ryan Crouser won his third straight Olympic title in the men's shot put, throwing a season best 75-1.75 (22.90m), with fellow American Joe Kovacs second at 72-8 (22.15m), and Jamaica's Rajindra Campbell third with the identical mark. 

Kovacs got the silver with a better second throw of 71-2.75 (21.71m) to Campbell's 65-7.5 (20.00m).

In the mixed 4 x 400 relay, the Netherlands, who subbed in Femke Bol on the anchor, beat the USA, running 3:07.43 to the USA's 3:07.74, thanks to Bol's 47.93 anchor leg. Great Britain was third at 3:08.01.

The American quartet of Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little, Bryce Deadmon and Kaylyn Brown broke the world record in Friday's qualifying round, going 3:07.41, but kept the same team in the final, instead of using their one substitute.

Thea Lafond of Dominica, who competed collegiately at the University of Maryland, won her country's first medal of any color in the triple jump, taking the event with a national record 49-3.5 (15.02m). Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica was second at 48-9.5 (14.87m), and Jasmine Moore of Team USA earned the Americans' first ever medal in the event, with her third place finish at 48-1.75 (14.67m).

University of Texas standout Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia won the much-hyped women's 100 meters, beating reigning world champion Sha'Carri Richardson of the USA by a convincing 10.72 to 10.87. Richardson's training partner Melissa Jefferson of the USA was third in 10.92.

Markus Rooth of Norway pulled off one of the bigger upsets of the meet so far in winning the decathlon over heavy favorite Leo Neugebauer of Germany.

Rooth, who wasn't in Track & Field News' top ten form chart, beat Neugebauer in the final three events--pole vault, javelin and 1500 to take the title with a final score of 8796 to 8748 for Neugebauer, who entered the meet as the world leader with 8961 points.

Lindon Victor of Grenada, a Texas A&M alum, was third with 8711 points.

On Sunday, Pasco native Marisa Howard kicks off the morning session in the third heat of the women's 3000 steeplechase at 1:35 am Pacific/10:35 am Paris time.

Washington alum Gianna Woodruff of Panama closes out the morning session in heat 2 of the women's 400 hurdles at 3:43 am Pacific/12:43 pm Paris time.

In a rematch of Saturday's first round heat won by Louie Hinchliffe, he's in heat 1 of the men's 100 meter semifinals against American Noah Lyles, as well as his Houston teammate Shaun Maswanganyi of South Africa at 11:05 Pacific time/8:05 pm Paris time.

The top 2 in each of the three heats of the 100, plus the two fastest time qualifiers will race for the 100 meter title at 12:50 pm Pacific time/9:50 pm Paris time.

Nia Akins of the Brooks Beasts is in the third of three semifinal heats of the women's 800 at 11:55 am Pacific/8:55 pm Paris time, where she'll have a rematch of Friday's first round with current world leader Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain, who won the heat ahead of Akins.

Fifteen minutes later, her Beasts teammate Josh Kerr of Great Britain is in the first of two semifinal heats in the men's 1500, where the reigning world champion faces defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, with American Cole Hocker thrown in for good measure.

The top six will advance to Tuesday's finals.

The start lists and results for the Olympic track and field competition is available on the World Athletics microsite, which is available here.

In the United States, streaming is available on the NBCOlympics.com site or Peacocktv.com ($).

Sunday's session will also be shown live on USA Network starting at 1 am Pacific, while the evening session will be broadcast on USA Network starting at 10 am Pacific, and on NBC/KING5 in Seattle (check local listings for times of the NBC network broadcasts).

In Canada, Olympic action will be shown on CBC and streamed on CBC.ca.

WALEED SULIMAN OF BROOKS BEASTS WINS SIR WALTER MILER...

In Raleigh, North Carolina, Waleed Suliman of the Brooks Beasts won the men's Sir Walter Miler elite race at Meredith College Friday night.

Suliman ran a meet record 3:51.89 to beat out the pro field of 14 runners.

Washington State alum Paul Ryan was fifth at 3:53.57, while UW alum Mick Stanovsek was ninth in 3:54.11.

In the women's race, Washington alum Eleanor Fulton was fourth in 4:24.87, as Dorcus Ewoi won in a meet record 4:19.71.

Allie Buchalski of the Brooks Beasts was eighth in 4:30.68.

Results of the Sir Walter Miler elite sections are available here. There's also a link on the page to watch the replay of the meet.

NOTE: World Athletics, British Athletics, the Sir Walter Miler, and the sports information office of the University of Houston contributed to this report.

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