Jereem Richards squeezes into World Indoor 400m semis

Trinidad and Tobago track star and reigning world champion Jereem Richards just managed to advance to the semifinal round of the men's 400-metre event at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland on Friday morning, booking his spot as one of the non-automatic qualifiers.

Running in lane five, the 2022 World Indoor champion finished fourth in heat three in 47.04 seconds.

Hungary's Attila Molnar, who came into the race with a season-best time of 46.22 seconds, passed a tiring Richards on the final stretch to win the heat in 46.52 seconds.

Nigeria's Dubem Nwachukwu (46.91 seconds) took second spot, with Portugal's Omar Elkhatib (46.99 seconds) also edging Richards near the finish line to grab the third spot with a personal-best clocking.

With the top two athletes from the four 400-metre heats advancing to the semis, to go along with the four-fastest non-automatic qualifiers, Richards just sneaked in ahead of the USA's Jacory Patterson to grab the last qualifying spot. Patterson also clocked a time of 47.04 seconds in his heat.

In heat one, Patterson finished third behind reigning 400-metre hurdles Olympic champion Karsten Warholm (46.68 seconds) and Rok Ferlan (47.04 seconds).

Czech Republic's Matej Krsek (46.07 seconds) advanced as the fastest overall qualifier after winning heat two in 46.07 seconds. Jamaica's Rusheen McDonald ran a personal best of 46.25 seconds to finish second behind Krsek.

From 5.10 pm on Friday, Richards will line up against the likes of Molnar and Nwachukwu in the first of two semifinals.

The top three athletes from each semi will qualify for Saturday's final, along with two non-automatic qualifiers.