BEIJING (AP) – The Latest from the IAAF world championships (all times local):
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11 a.m.
The U.S. teams qualified fastest for the men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relay finals at the world championships.
The American women led at every split and finished in 3 minutes, 23.05 seconds to beat Britain (3:23.90) and France (3:24.86) in their heat on Saturday. Nigeria had the second-fastest qualifying time, winning the first of the women’s heats in 3:23.27.
In the second of the men’s heats, Jamaica led at the first two changeovers before the Americans rallied to win in 2:58.13. Trinidad was second in 2:58.67, edging Jamaica by 0.02.
Britain won the earlier men’s heat in 2:59.05.
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9:55 a.m.
Matej Toth of Slovakia leads the 50-kilometer walk just past the halfway point, widening his lead over his nearest competitors to 55 seconds.
Toth, who has the third-fastest time in history, passed the 30-kilometer mark in 2 hours, 13 minutes, 14 seconds.
Defending champion Robert Heffernan of Ireland and two-time Olympic silver medalist Jared Tallent of Australia were in a group of walkers behind Toth, alongside Zhang Lin of China and Japanese teammates Takayuki Tanii and Hirooki Arai.
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9:30 a.m.
Ashton Eaton leads the decathlon by 165 points after six events, placing second to Damian Warner of Canada in the 110-meter hurdles on Saturday.
Warner won the last of the decathlon sprint hurdles heats in 13.63 seconds, reducing the margin by eight points to Eaton, who recorded 13.69.
Eaton, the Olympic and world champion, had 5,718 points with the discus throw, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters to go.
Warner was in second with 5,553 points and Rico Freimuth of Germany was third with 5,392.
Yordani Garcia of Cuba crashed in the last heat of the hurdles, slipping to 25th place. Two-time world champion Trey Hardee withdrew on Friday after injuring his back in the long jump.
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8:45 a.m.
Matej Toth was leading the 50-kilometer walk after 15K in the world championships.
Toth, who has the third-fastest time in history, passed the mark in 1 hour, 7 minutes, 28 seconds and was 39 seconds clear of Jared Tallent of Australia, a two-time Olympic silver medalist.
Defending champion Robert Heffernan of Ireland, Mario Jose Dos Santos of Brazil and Lukasz Nowak of Poland were part of a group a further 10 seconds off the pace.
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7:40 a.m.
The 50-kilometer walk got under way Saturday morning, minus the only Russian entered in the competition.
Alexander Yargunkin was entered in the race but did not start amid reports that he did not travel to China because of the recent doping scandal engulfing race walking in Russia.
Jared Tallent, the two-time Olympic and two-time world championship silver medalist from Australia, was among the early leaders.