The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

LONDON, England — It wasn’t the type of race that Ivanique Kemp had anticipated, but she got through the first round as one of the three automatic qualifiers in her heat in the Women’s 100m Hurdles yesterday.

Kemp, 21, came through the series of 10 hurdles in a time of 13.51 seconds for third in the second of six heats to place her 32nd overall as she went into the semifinal today with the last of all of the qualifiers.

Her heat was to have included Jessica Ennis, Great Britain’s heptathlon gold medallist, but she didn’t start. Beate Schrott won the heat in 13.09, followed by Eline Berings in 13.46.

Nonetheless, Kemp struggled a bit running out of lane seven.

“It was not a good race. I was a little rocky coming out of my blocks, then getting hooked up with the other competitor in the first couple of hurdles,” she said. “It was okay. I made it through to the semis.”

The University of Arkansas student, who was greeted in the mixed zone by women’s head coach Dianne Woodside, said she will definitely make the necessary adjustments to prepare for the semifinal today.

“I’m definitely going to get out of the blocks,” she said. “I think that was my problem. I came out unstable because I was trying to catch my balance. I think me and some of my team-mates are having the same problem, so next round, I’m going to be good.”

Despite not running the type of race that she anticipated, Kemp said the whole idea was to advance and now that she has done that, she can go back to the drawing board and prepare herself for her second appearance here.

“There’s no pressure here,” she said. “You just have to push harder and you will be all right. It’s a great feeling. I know I believe her, hearing everybody cheering.”

Woodside, a former hurdler herself before she turned coach, said that there’s some adjustment that Kemp has to make for the semis, but she’s confident that she will be okay.

“We have to make some adjustments with her run and her technique, but we will go back to the drawing board and make those adjustments,” she said. “She should do fairly well. This is her first time at the Olympics and she’s gotten through to the semifinals, so she should do very well.”

Woodside, the first Bahamian female to coach at the Olympics after her historic feat at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, is celebrating her birthday today.

And she would like no better present than to see Kemp advance to the final, while her long-time prot�g� Shamar Sands gets out of the first round of the Men’s 110 Hurdles.