Greene, Johnson ease through qualifiers

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Sydney: World champion Maurice Greene qualified for the second round of the Olympic men's 100 metres on Friday with utmost ease before a crowd in excess of 100,000 at Stadium Australia.

The world record holder clocked 10.31, slowing down so sharply over the final metres that it seemed he had almost walked across the line. "I feel fine," he said. "I'm having fun and just enjoying myself. I have to stay relaxed."

Canada's Donovan Bailey, who has been suffering with influenza this week, survived a false start to qualify in third place from his heat.

Greene's training partner Ato Boldon of Trinidad, the 1997 world 200 champion, was the fastest qualifier with 10.04 seconds but clearly felt he had been running too quickly.

"Too fast, too fast," he mouthed after crossing the line

Meanwhile, world record holder and defending champion Michael Johnson also eased through his opening heat in the Olympic 400 metres on Friday, declaring his 45.25 seconds qualifying time "mission accomplished."

Johnson, running in the seventh of nine heats on the first day of the athletics programme, took it out quite hard for the first half of the race, consolidated over the third 100 and then shut down.

His first sidewards glance came at the start of the home straight and he did no more than was necessary to hold off Spaniard David Canal as he eased across the line.

"I worked the curve a bit, not as hard as I would in the final but it felt good, very relaxed. You could say it was mission accomplished." Johnson has been staying in Sydney, away from the athletes' village and surrounded by his family. He said it had been an enjoyable week.

"But I'm ready to get started now," he said. "Tomorrow (second round) should be okay and we should be able to run in the semi."

Johnson won both the 200 and 400 metres in the 1996 Atlanta Games but lost the chance of defending the shorter sprint after pulling up injured in the US trials.

But he said that he had no fitness worries now. "Everything felt really good, training's been going great and there's no need to be concerned." Johnson wasn't entirely happy, though, that Brazilian Sanderlei Parrela, banned for a positive nandrolone test in June but reinstated by the IAAF on Tuesday, was allowed to run.



(c) Reuters Limited.