Athletics: Felix eases into semi-finals with focus on 400

Allyson Felix clocked 49.67 seconds, the fastest time in Sunday’s 400m semifinals, to win heat three and advance to Monday’s final.

The London 400 meters champion Sanya Richards-Ross was also unable to defend the Olympic crown after suffering a career-ending injury at the same meet.

Water polo: USA women vs. Brazil (1:10 p.m., NBC) – The defending Olympic gold medalists will have the crowd against them in the quarterfinals but will still be heavily favored after going undefeated in pool play.

She also appears in a P&G “Thank you, Mom” video with her mother, Marlean Felix, who says Allyson “just doesn’t have the give-up spirit”.

Felix said she had worked on the second part of her race, adding that she was not concerned about late starts to the athletics programme here.

“I wanted to get a solid effort and try to make a run at a good lane tomorrow. It’s kind of been what we’ve been doing for a very long time”.

But the reigning world 400m champion said she was just happy to get on the blue track of the Olympic Stadium after coasting through her first round outing.

American Phyllis Francis topped the time sheets in 50.58 seconds followed Bahrainis Oluwakemi Adekoya (50.72) and 18-year-old Salwa Eid Naser (51.06), a national record and personal best respectively. Italian Libania Grenot (50.60) and Ukraine’s Olha Zemlyak (50.75) will also line up in the final after qualifying as the fastest finishers outside the top two. “I thought yesterday the old Christine was back but I think she only paid a fleeting visit”, she said. “I’ve made it from not being able to walk to being here”.

“I think it’s been a tough year”.

“In the middle of the year I got burned out”.

The loss ended Felix’s hopes of becoming only the third woman in history to win both the 400m and 200m at the same Olympics after Valerie Brisco-Hooks of the United States in 1984 and Marie-Jose Perec of France in 1996.

“I raced hard up front like I normally do to set it up nicely so I could take it easy coming home”, said Hastings.