Classy Idowu sails through
Great Britain's main hope for an athletics gold medal Phillips Idowu got his Olympic Games off to a perfect start on Monday.
Last Updated: 18/08/08 7:18am
Great Britain's main hope for an athletics gold medal Phillips Idowu got his Olympic Games off to a perfect start on Monday.
Idowu, this year's world indoor champion, qualified for Thursday's final with his very first leap - soaring out to 17.44m in Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium.
He looked every inch the gold-medal favourite with that effort - a full 34cm past the automatic qualifying mark.
Idowu will be looking to erase the bad memories of Athens 2004 on Thursday - four years ago he produced three no jumps in the final.
Compatriot Larry Achike is also through after he leapt out to 17.18m.
However, Nathan Douglas could not make it three Brits in the final. His best effort of 16.72m came on his third and final attempt but it wasn't good enough to qualify.
Portugal's Nelson Evora was Idowu's closest challenger with a jump of 17.34m with China's Li Yanxi guaranteeing an electric atmosphere for the final with a best of 17.30m.
Meanwhile, in the women's hammer qualification, Briton Zoe Derham's best effort of 64.74m was not enough to make the final.
