The three Frenchmen engaged in the 110m hurdles, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, Sasha Zhoya and Just Kwaou-Mathey, crossed the milestone of the series at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene (Oregon) on Saturday morning.
Zhoya, the young nugget of French athletics with dizzying progress, qualified in 13 sec 48 by taking third place in his series, like Kwaou-Mathey, him in 13 sec 32, five hundredths of his personal best .
Martinot-Lagarde, only fifth in his series in 13 sec 49, validated his place in the semi-finals on time.
The first four in each series and the next four best times qualified for the semi-finals scheduled for Sunday as the final (2:05 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. in the night from Sunday to Monday French time).
Grant Holloway fastest
The best time was achieved by the American Grant Holloway, outgoing world champion and Olympic silver medalist last summer in Tokyo, in 13 sec 14, ahead of the reigning Olympic champion, the Jamaican Hansle Parchment (13.17).
The American Devon Allen, who had approached four hundredths of the world record in mid-June (12.84 against 12.80), ran him in 13 sec 47 to win his series.
