Live: Gout Gout, Torrie Lewis aim for 200m final at World Athletics Champs

The 800m races are not run in lanes for the entire duration of the race, but they do start in lanes to mitigate any shoving that would unduly affect a runner in a pack start.

That does limit how many people they have have in each heat, unfortunately.

Or fortunately. I quite like the 800.

If you’ve just joined us – welcome!

We’re well into a big, big night for Australian athletics, with Gout Gout’s 200m semifinal the one thing everyone wants to know about.

Fortunately, we’re now just one hour away from the semifinals getting underway.

The first of the three heats gets going at 10:02pm AEST.

Gout will run in the second heat which is due to run at 10:09pm AEDT.

If you tune in for that, you’d be mad not to stay around for Torrie Lewis’ semifinal. She runs at 10:31pm AEST.

Yes I know it’s a bit late, but you know what? I reckon you could have a lie in tomorrow, in the spirit of Australian sporting success.

First attempts from both the Aussie medal hopes Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson and they are both over very easily.

Not quite such good news for Emily Whelan, who knocked the bar off in her attempt at the height.

Jess Hull is back in action following her heroics in the women’s 1,500m, where she dug so deep to claim a valiant bronze medal.

Now she goes in the two-lap race, looking to emulate some of the greatest middle distance runners in history by winning the double.

It’s a very hard thing to do though and my suspicion is that Hull is a better runner over slightly longer distances than the two lap sprint.

The talent in this field is absolutely out of this world as well.

Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson finally shrugged off her bridesmaid tag in Paris and despite missing most of the year with a hamstring injury, she’s still coming into this event as favourite.

Hodgkinson, who goes in heat one, set the fastest time of the year in her comeback race last month to underline her class over two laps.

Kenya’s Mary Moraa, the defending champion and reigning Commonwealth champion, cannot be discounted. She goes in heat two, neither can Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia, the number two-ranked runner in the world over the distance this year, who goes in heat three.

Victoria’s Abbey Caldwell, 24, is the first Aussie in action, running in heat four.

National record holder Claudia Hollingsworth, the 20-year-old coached by Craig Mottram and fuelled by jellybeans, is in the sixth heat and is up against Georgia Hunter Bell. Aussies may remember her as being the runner who raced up behind Hull in Paris in the 1,500m final to claim bronze and almost sneak past to silver.

Hull goes in heat seven.

The first three in each heat qualify regardless of time, the next three fastest times also go through to the semifinal.

Hats off to history makers Rose Davies and Linden Hall!

Rose Davis finished in third spot behind Gudaf Tsegay and Faith Kipyegon.

But Linden Hall was sitting ninth with just 50 metres to go.

But she fought and dug in and managed to overhaul a couple of runners to get into the mixer and she has qualified in seventh.

Brilliant. Brilliant running from the Aussies.

A brilliant race.

Davies ran 14:56.83, Hall 14:57.80.

After narrowly missing out on the 1,500 final, there was no way Hall was going to let it happen again.

Rose Davis is still there at the top of the pack, so is Linden Hall.

It’s getting a bit pushy as Faith Kipyegon is leading them home.

Only the lead eight to get home.

There’s a pack of nine again!

This is good for Linden Hall and Rose Davis.

They are in the lead part of this chasing group behind Ririka Hironaka, whose lead is starting to disappear.

Faith Kipyegon has gone into the lead of that pack with a kilmetre to go.

It’s starting to move faster up front.

Well done Emily Whelan!

She gets over with her third and final attempt at the opening height of 1.83.

She is still in the competition.

Aussie Cam McEntyre threw 74.39m with his first round effort.

Curtis Thompson leads with 86.67, Sachin Yadav second in 86.27 and Anderson Peters is up there with 64.59.

Ririka Hironaka is on the charge, leading the field by about 7 seconds after breaking away just after the KM mark.

She’s running her own race entirely, it seems. Can she hang on in tough conditions?

The rest of the field is far more compact, with the Aussies Linden Hall and Rose Davies really running nicely in fifth and sixth.

Another home athlete taking up the pace here, Ririka Hironaka this time.

She takes them through 1km in 2:55.28, trying to stretch the field and keep it fast.

Linden Hall and Rose Davies in fifth and sixth, in good position. Faith Kipyegon is in ninth,.

Rose Davies and Linden Hall go in this heat – will they look to work together at all?

Both these women are capable of making the eight.

The javelin final features 12 athletes all trying to throw as far as they can.

It’s classed as a horizontal field events by World Athletics and there is a slightly different format to what you’d expect.

The 12 athletes who qualified all start and take three attempts.

After that, the worst two are eliminated.

Ten take another next attempt, with the worst two eliminated, then eight athletes throw.

Finally, only six throwers will get a chance to take their sixth and final attempt for a shot at a medal.

Hats off to Cameron McEntyre, who set a new personal best by some distance to break into the top 12 and qualify for tonight’s final.

McEntyre threw 83.03, smashing his previous best of 82.35, for the chance to mix it with the big boys.

The big names all made statements yesterday in qualifying, with four of the top five ranked throwers in the world, Julian Weber (GER), Neeraj Chopra (IND), Anderson Peters (GRN) and Julius Yego (KEN) all launching the javelin over the automatic qualifying mark.

Expect them to go just as big tonight.

This competition has just got underway.

Yeah, she did really well.

Her name is Farida Abaroge, a woman who was born in south west Ethiopia and claimed asylum in France in 2017.

She represented the IOC Refugee Team at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 1,500m.

Eleanor Patterson is not interested in jumping at 1.83 in Group A, so sits that one out with a pass.

Nicola Olyslagers did the same in Group B.

However, Emily Whelan is one of many who has knocked the bar off at this height, so some early struggles for the third Aussie in the field.

Time for qualification in the women’s high jump to get underway, and we have a real treat on our hands in this one.

Australia won two medals at the Olympics, Nicola Olyslagers in second and Eleanor Patterson in third behind world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine.

Olyslagers, on form at least, comes into this championships in unbelievable form.

She has beaten Mahuchikh in four competitions so far this season, the worlds in serious form, and has four victories over the 23-year-old Ukrainian star this season.

The defending indoor world champion, Olyslagers broke the Australian and Oceanian record in leaping a world-leading 2.04m in Zurich’s Sechselautenplatz square to win her fourth Diamond League gold and the overall title last month.

Patterson, the 2022 world champion and Olympic bronze medallist, finished sixth in Zurich but remains a threat, ranked third by World Athletics this season as the Aussies look to repeat their double podium from Paris last year.

The third Aussie, 25-year-old Emily Whelan, will also attempt to qualify, but with a personal best of 1.91, that might be a tough ask.

The automatic qualifying mark stands at 1.97m, but saving too few people clearing that height today, the top 12 will qualify.

The final is on Sunday night.

Nicely run by Beatrice Chebet.

She finishes in 14:45.59 – try doing your local parkrun in anything like that sorta pace on Saturday morning, by the way.

The Japanese runner Nozomi Tanaka qualified much to the delight of the home crowd.

One surprise is Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom, who missed out.

Wasn’t Georgia Griffith‘s night, unfortunately.

She finishes in 18th place,  15:33.15 her time.