08 October 2010

England’s Andy Turner (Lloyd Cowan) booked his place in tonight’s 110m hurdles final as the fastest qualifier at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Turner, 30, who won Commonwealth bronze in Melbourne four years ago, clocked 13.58 seconds to take victory in his heat as he looks to add to his European Championships gold medal in Barcelona from earlier this summer.

England team-mate and national champion Will Sharman (George Maciukiewicz) clocked 13.65 seconds to finish second in his heat, 0.01 behind Jamaica’s Eric Keddo.

"I feel confident. I feel like I only really ran to halfway and just kind of maintained it,” said Turner. “I feel like I have got a lot more in the tank and now I feel I have got a lot more for the final.

“I feel I’m in condition to win the gold. But there are ten hurdles in the way and I need to have ten good hurdles like Barcelona.”

Scotland’s Chris Baillie (Malcolm Arnold), who took silver in Melbourne four years ago, also advanced in 14.03, as did England’s Lawrence Clarke (Malcolm Arnold) in 13.82.

Elsewhere, there was an impressive start to the heptathlon for England’s Louise Hazel (Fayyaz Ahmed) who produced a 100m hurdles personal best of 13.25 to take 1087 points and lie second after the first event.

"It was a really good start,” said Hazel. “It’s a personal best, just what I wanted to open the competition with. I’m an outside chance of a medal.

“Given that performance, it hopefully means I am on form. Hopefully I can break through and top three is within reach."

England’s Phyllis Agbo could only manage 14.20 seconds, good enough for 950 points, while Grace Clements of England accrued 953 points for her time of 14.18 seconds.

And in the high jump, Hazel finished seventh with a jump of 1.69m, Clements was third with a leap of 1.78m while Agbo was ranked 13th after a best effort of 1.63m.

Chris Tomlinson (Frank Attoh) joined Greg Rutherford (Dan Pfaff) in qualifying for the men’s long jump final, but his appearance in the medal showdown is in doubt after he was carried off on a stretcher.

The European bronze medallist reached the latter stages with a leap of 7.95m but appeared to land awkwardly on his ankle in doing so before leaving to receive medical attention.

Rutherford followed him into the final after jumping 7.74m, and while admitting he wanted more, he declared himself satisfied with his efforts.

“I am very pleased to have made the final – the distance wasn’t massive but I just had to do what I had to do,” said Rutherford.

“It’s just a matter of getting through qualification and then turning it on for the final. I don’t want to big it up too much, but I felt very, very good and it’s very rare I get this.”

Gareth Warburton (Darrell Maynard) of Wales was among a host of British athletes to advance to Saturday’s 800m semi-finals after finishing third in his heat in 1.51.64 minutes.

“The job is just to get through to the semi-final and the real racing starts tomorrow," he said. "It’s one down and now I’ll be trying to get in the final on Sunday. The re-draw wasn’t an issue because my heat was pretty much the same so it didn’t cause any problems. I’m looking forward to the final and showing the English and Aussies what the Welsh can do.”

Joe Thomas (Arwyn Davies) of Wales finished second in heat four in 1.49.44 minutes with England’s Niall Brooks (Norman Poole) third in 1.50.54 minutes to ensure the home nations would have a strong showing in the next round.

England’s Andrew Osagie (Craig Winrow), who impressed on his senior debut at the World Indoor Championships in March, finished third in his heat, with England’s Darren St Clair who was second in his heat to progress.

Wales’ Chris Gowell also advanced finishing third, while Northern Ireland’s James McIlroy qualified as a fastest loser.

And in the decathlon, England’s Ben Hazell (Bill Jewers) is the leading Brit in third place after six events after a personal best throw of 48.01m in the discus to take his points tally to 5567.

England teammate Martin Brockman (Christopher Bowman) is close behind in fourth place on 5535 points while Kevin Sempers (Ian Grant) of England is sixth on 5489.

Northern Ireland’s Tom Reynolds is in tenth place with 5194 points, while Wales Ben Gregory (Alan Richardson) is 12th on 5108 and Scotland’s Roger Skedd (Greg Richards), who failed to get out the blocks in the hurdles after they appeared to slip, could only manage a best throw of 37.48m and is 14th on 4096.

And in the men’s T54 1500m, Wales Brian Alldis finished third in his semi-final, crossing the line in 3:27.19 minutes, to advance.