This morning in front of a packed house there were five heats of the Women's 400m hurdles, with the first four in each heat plus the next four fastest to go through to the (three) semifinals, tomorrow morning our time. Lauren Boden ran fifth in heat two and had to wait right until the end to see if she had snuck through to the semifinals. She did, just, being the fourth fastest of the non-automatic qualifiers. A runner in heat five who missed out was just 0.02 seconds slower than her. Lauren's time was quicker than the fourth place of one of the heats, so she is the 23rd fastest of those going into the semifinals. Her time of 56.27 is a good time, but still a second outside her PB, so she could improve. Two of the heats had nine runners and the other three had eight: Lauren had the disadvantage of not only running in a heat of nine, but also drawing lane one, which only one other runner had to suffer. So she has done really well getting into the semis.
Heat results are at this link.
In London watching her, Mum and Speedygoose Dad will be ecstatic!
