National champion Roshawn Clarke and Malik James-King are through to Wednesday’s semi-finals of the men’s 400m hurdles after contrasting qualifications at the Tokyo World Athletics Championships on Monday.

Clarke, who was a finalist two years ago in Budapest and at the Olympic Games in Paris last year, had to wait for a non-automatic spot after he finished fifth in his heat, running 48.83 seconds, which was the 22nd fastest of the 24 qualifiers

He just missed an automatic qualifying place after he noticeably slowed down towards the end of the race, glancing to his left, and was out-dipped on the line by Gerald Drummond of Costa Rica to his right for the fourth automatic spot in a season’s best 48.81 seconds.

Malik James-King took his spot after he was fourth in his heat in a season’s best 48.27 seconds while Assinie Wilson was eighth in 49.91 seconds in his heat and did not advance.

James-King, running from lane eight, ran a well judged race to get his semi-final spot, as Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba won with 48.03 seconds, ahead of Great Britain’s Tyri Donovan who ran a personal best 48.26 seconds and American Chris Robinson- 48.27 seconds.