SINGAPORE: Singapore sprinter Marc Brian Louis withdrew from the first round of the men's 100m at the Paris Olympics on Saturday (Aug 3) after picking up an injury.He had earlier qualified for the first round proper after progressing through the preliminary round of the event at the Stade de France.A spokesperson for the Singapore National Olympic Council told CNA: "Marc decided to withdraw from the heats as he felt a discomfort in his hamstring after the prelims, so as to prevent incurring a significant injury."Louis finished third in his preliminary round heat earlier on Saturday behind Ebrahima Camara of the Gambia and Malaysia's Muhammad Azeem Fahmi with a time of 10.43s, missing out on automatic qualification for Round 1 by a hundredth of a second.However, he progressed to the first round proper as the fastest runner who had not qualified automatically.
The top two runners in each heat qualified for Round 1 with the four fastest runners in the remainder of the field joining them.He had been scheduled to run in Heat 5 of Round 1 alongside the defending Olympic 100m champion, Marcell Jacobs of Italy, however, he did not line up for the heat and his name was marked with a "DNS" for "did not start".The heat was won by Kayinsola Ajayi of Nigeria who beat Jacobs to the line with a time of 10.02s.
Both men progressed to the semi-finals together with Abdul-Rasheed Saminu of Ghana who finished third in the heat. Kenneth Bednarek and Fred Kerley of the United States were the fastest qualifiers for the semis overall, clocking identical times of 9.97s.The semi-finals and the final of the 100m will take place on Sunday.Louis is Singapore's national record holder in the 100m.