TAMPERE, Finland — Freshly minted IAAF World Under-20 women’s 100m champion Briana Williams kicked off the second half of her quest for the sprint double this morning at the Tampere stadium after she easily qualified for this afternoon’s semi-finals of the 200m.

Just over 12 hours after her stunning win in the 100m, Williams cruised to a 23.32 seconds (0.9m/s) to win her first round heat in the half lap race and said the race plan stays the same as in the 100m.

“The plan was just to get through the rounds while not using up too much energy,” she said admitting she still felt tired from her exertions of the previous day.

Her time was the fourth fastest of the morning as American Lauren Raine Williams won her heat in 22.98 seconds, Paulina Miller of the Authorised Neutral Athletics ran 23.17 seconds while Martyna Kotwila set a Polish National Junior Record 23.21 seconds.

The first two from each of the three semi-final heats plus the next fastest two runners will qualify for the final set for tomorrow afternoon.

Meanwhile, female sprint hurdlers Britany Anderson and Amoi Brown and high jumper Lamara Distin were also successful in their first round.

Anderson won her heat in 13.37 seconds (-1.1m/s), the second fastest of the morning, while Brown ran 13.49 seconds (-0.9m/s), third fastest, both behind American Tia Jones’ 13.25 seconds (-1.1m/s).

Distin had a few nervous moments late in the qualifying as after breezing through the first four heights, got over 1.82m on her second attempt before knocking off the bar three times at 1.84m.

She however made it in as one of the 12th best qualifiers on the count back when two other jumpers who were left in the competition also failed at that height.

On the downside, Kemar Farquharson failed to get pass the first round of the men’s 800m after he faded to fourth in this first round race finishing in 1 minute 50.76 seconds, missing an automatic qualifying spot by one place.

Farquharson was well placed in second behind the Italian Simone Barontini but was beaten by a British and a Turkish runner, who managed to get pass him.

Paul Reid