World Indoor medal hopeful Guyanese Aliann Pompey stormed into the women's 400-metre semi-final, billed for today, with a 52.86 seconds run yesterday, at the 9th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birming-ham, England.
Competing in heat four of five heats, Pompey placed second to Svetlana Usovich (Belarus) who clocked 52.20 seconds, but finished ahead of Kaltouma Nadjina (Chad) 53.50 4, Antonina Yefremova (Ukraine) 53.64 5, Sailhate Djamaldine (Comoros Islands) 58.88 and Karla Hernandez (El Salvador) who was disqualified.
The Commonwealth Games gold medalist will once again meet with Usovich in today's semi-final, and will be seeking to turn the tables on the former Soviet Republic athlete.
Also in Pompey's heat are; Jamaica's Ronetta Smith who registered 53.74 seconds in heat three, United States' Monique Hennagan (52.44), Great Britain's Catherine Murphy (52.63) and Bahamas' Christine Amertil (52.15).
Smith placed second to Murphy, while Hennagan was second to Amertil.
The personal best times for the aforementioned athletes are as follows: Pompey (51.34), Smith (52.59), Usovich (52.04), Hennagan (50.82), Murphy (51.79) and Amertil (52.15).
Today also, the other semi-final will be contested, and this semi's will include the likes of world record holder Sandi Richards of Jamaica, Grit Breuer of Germany, Russia's Yuliya Pechonkina, Great Britain's Jenifer Meadows, Bahamas' Tonique Williams and Poland's Grazyna Prokopek.
Williams (52.04) won heat one from Pechonkina (52.62) while Meadows (52.74) placed third.
Breuer (52.10) was a comfortable winner in heat five, beating Richards (52.46) into second, while Prokopek (52.72) placed third.
The first two finishers in each heat, along with the two fastest loser qualified for the semi-final round.
In today's two semi-final, the first three from each heat along with the two fastest losers will qualify for tomorrow's final.