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| Lauren Hoffman missed out on her first try at making the women's 400-meter hurdles semis badly. |
MANILA--Lauren Hoffman slumped in her first crack at making the Paris Olympics women's 400-meter hurdles semifinals after finishing last in her first-round heat on Sunday at the Stade De France.
Hoffman finished last in Heat 4 of the preliminaries after clocking in at 57.84 seconds, which was slower than her personal best of 55.47 and season-best 55.72.
The United States' Anna Cockrell won the heat at a time of 53.91 seconds, while Great Britain's Lina Nielsen (54.65) won a photo finish against Jamaica's Janieve Russell (54.67) for the second spot, although it did not matter as Nielsen and Russell will join Cockrell in the semifinals as outright contenders.
Hanne Claes' season-best 54.8 seconds turned out to be enough for her to qualify through the semifinals via the next-best-three-times route.
Meanwhile, world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the USA dominated Heat 5 and won the race there by a blowout.
Levrone, also the reigning Olympic champ, finished the race at 53.6 seconds, nearly two seconds ahead of the other outright semifinalists, Morocco's Noura Ennadi (55.26) and France's Louise Maraval.
Hoffman has been relegated to the repechage round on Monday.
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