10th IAAF World Athletics Championship-Laporte way off own 100m hurdles Seychelles record |11 August 2005

Laporte probably lost momentum inside Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium as the women’s 100-metre hurdles first round was suspended for two hours due to torrential rains after just one heat had been run.

She clocked 14.00 seconds, 30 hundredths of a second off her Seychelles record of 13.70 seconds set on July 25, 2004 in France.

Olympic champion Joanna Hayes (USA) cruised to victory in 12.79 seconds in heat number five ahead of Linda Ferga-Khodadin (France, second in 12.85 seconds), Olena Krasovska (Ukraine, third in 12.86 seconds), Angela Whyte (Canada, fourth in 12.88 seconds) and Yun Feng (China, fifth in 12.99 seconds).

Russian Natalya Rusakova did not finish the race.

Only Laporte failed to advance to the quarterfinals from her heat as she did not finish among the top four and as one of the four fastest losers.

Still, Laporte, 21, beat four sprinters, finishing 29th overall out of 33 participants.

It is to note that Evans Marie clocked a personal best 21.65 seconds in the second of the six 200-metre heats on Tuesday, missing out on Cyril Brioche’s Seychelles record of 21.61 seconds.

G. G.