Glasgow - Arab Today
Jamaica's world silver medallist Warren Weir got his Commonwealth Games campaign off to a confident start on Wednesday, cruising through his 200m heat in a comfortable 20.71 seconds.
In the absence of double world and Olympic champion Usain Bolt, Weir, who also won bronze behind Bolt and Yohan Blake at the 2012 London Olympics, is one of the hot favourites to claim the 200m to make it a sprint double for Jamaica after Kemar Bailey-Cole won the 100m gold on Monday.
Neither Bailey-Cole nor 100m bronze medallist Nickel Ashmeade are competing in the 200m, but Weir will have compatriots Jason Livermore and national champion Rasheed Dwyer for company.
Also qualifying for Thursday's semi-finals will be Daniel Bailey of Antigua and South African Wayde van Niekerk.
Bolt meanwhile was irate after The Times newspaper reported that he had called Glasgow's Commonwealth Games "a bit shit", ahead of his appearance in the 4x100 metres relay.
Asked he was having a good time in Glasgow, the Jamaican sprint star reportedly replied "not really" and said that the London 2012 Olympics "were better".
But Bolt and his manager later called the claims "rubbish" and the athlete himself took to Twitter to deny the report.
"I'm waking up to this nonsense... journalist please don't create lies to make headlines," Bolt wrote
In the men's 400m hurdles, Wales' defending champion Dai Greene, the 2011 world gold medallist who has struggled with injury since, failed to come through his heat, a lack of track time showing as he faded badly down the back stretch.
"I knew I was playing catch up from a few months ago, I didn't expect to be here but my mindset did shift a bit and I wanted to make the final but ran out of steam, sadly it wasn't to be," Greene told BBC.
The fourth day of Commonwealth Games track and field at Hampden Park, home to the Scotland national football team, sees seven golds up for grabs in an exceptionally high-quality evening session.
Grenada's Olympic champion Kirani James, still just 21, races the men's 400m, the line-up including the Trinidad and Tobago trio of Jarrin Solomon, Renny Quow and Olympic bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon.
South African van Niekerk, Bahamas duo Chris Brown and Latoy Williams, and England's Martyn Rooney complete the eight-man field.
Nigeria's 100m champion Blessing Okagbare will look to take another step in her bid for a glorious treble when she begins her assault on the 200m in the heats.
Elsewhere, untouchable New Zealander Valerie Adams bids for a third shot put title, while world 800m record-holder David Rudisha of Kenya races in the semi-finals.
A keenly contested heptathlon will also come to a close, with Canada's Brianne Thiesen-Eaton in pole position, while there are also titles at stake in the men's high jump and long jump, and women's 3000m steeplechase and javelin.
Medals will also be up for grabs in the diving, with the finals of the women's synchronised 10m platform and 3m synchronised platform due to take place in Edinburgh.
Canada lead the world rankings in each discipline, but Australia's Melissa Wu is looking to defend the 10m title she won in Delhi alongside new partner Rachel Bugg.
The final of the men's 1m springboard is also taking place.
The men's and women's all-around gymnastics finals are on Wednesday's agenda and there will be five gold medals on offer in wrestling and two in weightlifting.
In the women's hockey there was joy for England as they edged Scotland 2-1 to reach the semi-finals and a likely matchup with New Zealand.
Source: AFP