TOKYO, Japan – Former world champion Yohan Blake and newcomer Oblique Seville both qualified for the semi-finals of the men’s 100m at the Tokyo Olympics after second-placed finishes in their respective first round heat on Saturday at the Olympic Stadium.

Blake looked relaxed in the final heat of the event, wearing a pair of shades, running 10.06 seconds (0.8m/s) as Australian Rohan Browning, running from lane one won in a personal best 10.01 seconds with Great Britain’s Chijindu Ujah placing third in 10.08 seconds

Twenty-year-old Seville equalled his personal best 10.04 seconds that he ran at the Jamaican Championships as he finished behind Italy’s Lamont Marcel Jacob’s who ran a national record 9.94m.

National champion Tyquendo Tracey was a no show for his heat and posted on his Instagram page that he had suffered a leg injury in training a few days ago and it did not get better in time for him to run on Saturday.

“I was not able to compete. A few days ago while training, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my leg while running from the blocks. The pain was enough for me to have to stop training for the evening. I did an ultra sound which indicated that something happened but it didn’t appear to be that bad of an injury,” he wrote.

“While warming up this morning/evening, the pain only got worst. I didn’t share this before because I was hopeful I would be okay by today. Unfortunately things did not work out that way,” he said.

-Paul A Reid