Hamish Kerr withdraws and Portia Bing disqualified

Barring a successful protest, Portia Bing has been disqualified after qualifying for the semi-final of the 400m hurdles at the 2019 IAAF World Championships. Portia placed fourth in her 400m hurdles heat, automatically qualifying for the next round with a new PB and New Zealand record time of 55.49, but currently won't be advancing to the semi-finals. The Athletics New Zealand team is waiting for confirmation after protesting the decision.

The 26-year-old, who competed as a heptathlete at the 2015 World Championships, switched to the 400m hurdles in 2017 and has twice lowered the national record this season.

In the men’s high jump Hamish Kerr cleared the opening height of 2.17m on his first attempt and second height of 2.22m on his third. He missed his first attempt at 2.26m before having to withdraw from the competition. “I’ve sort of had a dodgy ankle for close to eight months now and we’ve just been managing it. It sort of comes on and off, and I thought that we’d be all good today but obviously not,” said Hamish.

“I felt like I started well. I got the starting height of 2.17m first attempt and then I got over 2.22m third attempt, which was a good comeback, I just put it all out there. After one [at 2.26m] I felt it go and I just knew. It’s quite hard, it’s not a damaging thing it’s more of a pain factor, so if I have a lot of pain in it I don’t really feel I can comfortably run up my curve. I like to think that I did everything I could but sometimes it’s not enough.”

“I’ve had a very long year. I think I started competing about this time last year so looking forward to a bit of a break, getting a few weeks off, then I’ll come back and we’ll start going into Tokyo.”

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