Josh Kerr and Nia Akins of Brooks Beasts get to semis at day 1 of Olympic track & field...
SAINT-DENIS, France--Josh Kerr (photo courtesy World Athletics) of the Seattle based Brooks Beasts stayed towards the back in the first round of the men's 1500 as track and field opened up for business on day 1 of the Olympic competition at the Stade de France, but was good enough to take the victory in his heat.
Kerr, the reigning world champion from Great Britain, went through in 61.3 and 2:02.1 through the first 800, then got himself into eighth at 1200 before turning it on the last 300, winning in a season best 3:35.83.
“The goal here was just to stay relaxed and be confident in my fitness and I think I did that."
“Everyone gets really antsy in these first rounds because of all the build-up, the hype and it’s a big stadium with lots of people, so just made sure I stayed relaxed and when it was time to go, I put the burners on maybe a little bit too hard."
“I thought everyone was going to be battling with me. But I felt exactly how I thought I would, and it was a reassuring thing,” he told reporters in the mixed zone afterwards.
In heat 3 of the 1500, Washington alum Kieran Lumb of Canada went to the front, while former Husky Sam Tanner from New Zealand dropped to the back.
At the 1200 mark, Lumb was still in position to get one of the six qualifying positions to avoid running in the repechage round Saturday, but faded to tenth in 3:38.11. Tanner, his country's national champion at that distance, finished 13th in 3:39.87.
Akins, the two-time US national champion, finished in a time of 1:59.67, as Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain, the current world leader, won in 1:59.31. Akins will get to rest Saturday, while the non-qualifiers from Friday's heats will run in Saturday's repechage.
Washington alum Izzi Batt-Doyle finished ninth in her heat of the women's 5000 meters, running 15:03.64.
Batt-Doyle went to the front just short of the 3000 meter mark, and did most of the leading until the final lap.
In the last 100 meters, she and another runner bumped each other slightly, causing her to lose momentum, but not enough to stay in the top eight.
Kenya's Beatrice Chebet won the heat in 15:00.73.
Former Washington State Cougar Charisma Taylor finished with a best of 45-11.75 (14.01m)in the women's triple jump, set in round 1, but couldn't build on it, as she couldn't better her mark in the following two rounds.
Saturday marks the Olympic debut of former Washington State standout and British national champion Louie Hinchliffe, as he'll run in the first round of the men's 100 meters at 2:45 am Pacific/11:45 am local time.
Both Lumb and Tanner return to run in the repechage round of the mens 1500 at 10:15 am Pacific/7:15 pm local time for a second chance to run in the semifinals.
Unlike the first round, only the top three will return to run in the semifinals on Sunday.
Joshua Cheptegai of Uganda won the first final of the track and field competition, taking the men's 10000 meters in an Olympic record 26:43.14 as the first 13 men across the line broke 27 minutes.
Stanford alum and US Olympic Trials champ Grant Fisher finished third in the race in 26:43.46
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 ($).
The Saturday morning session will also be shown live on E! 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.
NOTE: World Athletics and British Athletics contributed to this report.
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