Great Britain’s CJ Ujah insists he is ready to challenge Christian Coleman at the World Indoor Championships.
The 23-year-old remains on course to reach Saturday evening’s 60 metres final in Birmingham after cruising into the semi-finals.
Ujah, a 4x100m world champion, clocked 6.57 seconds to win his heat in the morning session.
He said: “You’ve got to just come out and take it round by round. I just wanted to run a little faster than I did here at trials a couple of weeks ago.
“I wanted to get the legs turning over quickly which I did, so I’ll go back to the hotel now and rest up.
Qualifying for the World Indoor 60m semi-final with victory in the heats in 6.59 like…..
??@Chijindu_Ujah pic.twitter.com/RuC1w9rJWj
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) March 3, 2018
“It’s coming to the moment now and I have to be ready. The last few weeks have been good build-up but just part of the training. It is all about tackling that next round now.”
Favourite Coleman almost suffered disaster in the first heat when he stumbled after three strides but recovered well to win.
He said: “I just wanted to come out here and make it to the next round. My start was decent, but I tripped. But I stayed calm and made it through.
6.71 does it! @__coleman moves on to the semi-finals later today after winning his heat. #iaafworlds
— USATF (@usatf) March 3, 2018
“My focus is to win. I have come out here to compete and to see if I can come out with the victory.
“I put a lot of focus on it. I’m really excited and feel well prepared. The crowd here is great so far and I think it will be electric this evening.”
Britain’s Andrew Robertson also reached the semi finals as a fastest loser.
?BOOM ?
Superb run by ??men’s 4x400m relay team to make the World Indoor final
That’s the first time @OwenSmith400 @SebRodger @jaymarcusd @grant1503 have EVER run together.
??? #REPRESENT pic.twitter.com/xCOpTqiQTt
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) March 3, 2018
The men’s 4x400m relay squad reached Sunday’s final in 3:05.09, finishing behind the United States, having not run competitively with each other before while the women also made their final.
Also on Saturday morning, Jake Wightman and Chris O’Hara reached the men’s 1500m final and co-captain Shelayna Oskan-Clarke reach the women’s 800m final.
