Incoming frosh Mary MacLean and current Dawg Chloe Symon advance in World U20 800m...

EUGENE--Washington's Chloe Symon and incoming freshman Mary MacLean (hip 7/Ken Martinez/West Coast XC photo) both comfortably advanced to the semifinals of the women's 800 Friday afternoon as the World Athletics Under-20 Championships got underway at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

In the third of five qualifying heats, in which the top five in each heat plus the two fastest time qualifiers advance to Friday night's semifinals, MacLean, the Canadian national U20 champ, finished fifth in a time of 2:06.47, just ahead of Guyana's Olivia Solomon, who ran 2:06.55.

As it turned out, both time qualifiers advanced out of heat 3.

In heat 5, Symon, the Canadian U20 record holder in this event, ran a comfortable 2:07.06 to finish fourth to advance.

In what was the slowest of the five heats, incoming Husky freshman Saoirse Fitzgerald of Ireland was sixth in heat 1, running 2:10.73.

That heat was won by Živa Remic of Slovenia in 2:09.86, while the last qualifier out of the heat was Derartu Shibiru of Ethiopia in 2:10.28.

Thursday's action involving Washington affiliated athletes begins at 11:27 am as Kamiak HS rising senior Miller Warme of the USA goes in round 1 of the men's 400 hurdles.

At noon, Lake Washington HS grad Yevhen Zhmailo of Ukraine, the Washington 4A long and triple jump champ, jumps in the qualifying round of the men's triple jump.

At 7:05 pm, incoming UW freshmen Milla Roberts of Australia and Sherry Drury of Japan run in the  third heat of the women's 1500.

The World Athletics Under 20 Championships microsite, which has links to the timetable and live results, is available here.

Peacock ($) will stream all sessions of the World Athletics U20 champs.

NOTE: World Athletics contributed to this report.

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