Okagbare and Asumnu advance in 100m

Blessing Okagbare recast herself as a medal favorite in the Olympic 100 after setting a personal best 10.93 seconds to win her first-round heat in London.

That time was the second-fastest of the round behind America's Carmelita Jeter's 10.83 and shaved .03 seconds off her previous personal best set earlier this year.

Okagbare did that despite a conservative start that had her one of the last runners out of the blocks in the fourth of seven heats. She ran down America's Tianna Madison (10.97) by the midpoint as those two were more than a quarter of a second ahead of anyone else in the heat.

Her reward was an imposing semi-final draw with American Tianna Madison, Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart and Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure as her principal rivals.

She was joined in the semi-final by Gloria Asumnu. Gloria advanced to Saturday's 2012 London Olympic Games 100 meters' semifinals with the 16th fastest time in the event.

Asumnu opened her first Olympic games with a preferred lane – lane five - in the third heat of the 100 meter prelims and tied her season-best time. Running next to medal contender Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica, Asumnu was second midway through the race and eventually finished third in the heat with a time of 11.13.

In the semi-finals Asumnu was drawn with Allyson Felix of the US, Trinidad’s Kelly-Ann Baptiste, and defending champion from Jamaica Shelly-Ann Frazer-Pryce.

Team Nigeria’s third sprinter Oludamola Osayomi failed to qualify for the semi-finals after finishing fourth in the final heat in 11.36.

The full draw:

Heat 1Lane Bib Athlete PB SB +

2 1869 OYEPITAN Abiodun 11.17 11.21 +

3 3179 POVH Olesya 11.08 11.08 +

4 2194 CAMPBELL-BROWN Veronica 10.76 10.82 +

5 3058 HACKETT Semoy 11.04 11.04 +

6 3299 JETER Carmelita 10.64 10.81 +

7 1247 SANTOS Rosangela 11.21 11.21 +

8 2125 JONES-FERRETTE Laverne 11.07 11.07 +

9 1796 ZANG MILAMA Ruddy 11.03 11.03 +

Heat 2Lane Bib Athlete PB SB +

2 1114 FERGUSON Sheniqua 11.07 11.07 +

3 2605 OKPARAEBO Ezinne 11.14 11.14 +

4 3287 FELIX Allyson 10.92 10.92 +

5 3055 BAPTISTE Kelly-Ann 10.84 10.86 +

6 2197 FRASER-PRYCE Shelly-Ann 10.70 10.70 +

7 1268 LALOVA Ivet 10.77 11.06 +

8 2277 BLUDOVA Olga 11.12 11.12 +

9 2578 ASUMNU Gloria 11.03 11.13 +

Heat 3Lane Bib Athlete PB SB +

2 3053 AHYE Michelle-Lee 11.19 11.19 +

3 2433 GRINCIKAITE Lina 11.19 11.19 +

4 1791 SOUMARE Myriam 11.07 11.07 +

5 1402 AHOURE Murielle 10.99 10.99 +

6 3306 MADISON Tianna 10.96 10.96 +

7 2584 OKAGBARE Blessing 10.93 10.93 +

8 2207 STEWART Kerron 10.75 10.94 +

9 1963 SAILER Verena 11.05 11.05 +