TOKYO, Japan – Jamaica’s national champion Ronald Levy, Damion Thomas and Hansle Parchment made it safely through the first round of the 110m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Tuesday.

The trio secured automatic qualifications to the semi-finals by finishing in the top four of their heats.

Levy made sure with a win in the first race, clocking 13.17 seconds (0.0m/s), despite hitting the first two hurdles. Jason Joseph of Switzerland was second in a season’s best 13.31 seconds and Hungary’s Valdo Szucs was third in 13.50 seconds, the same time given to Great Britain’s Andrew Pozzi who was fourth.

Thomas, the World Under 20 champion, had a fantastic second half of the his race to snatch third place after a poor start, running 13.54 seconds (0.1m/s), as Spain’s Asier Martinez won with 13.32 seconds with American Daniel Roberts second with 13.41 seconds.

Parchment was second in his heat in 13.23 seconds (-0.1m/s), beaten by the red-hot gold medal favourite Grant Holloway of the United States who ran a blistering 13.02 seconds while Australia’s Nicholas Hough was third in 13.57 seconds.

-Paul A Reid