Lasic flies high

Doha : Defending champion Blanka Vlasic sailed through qualification of the women's high jump on the opening morning's competition of the IAAF World Indoor Championships yesterday.

The Croatian nailed three jumps, the third at 1.92m, which was good enough for qualification but far from her personal indoor best of 2.05m.

Vlasic, who is also world outdoor champion and Olympic silver medallist, will be accompanied in the nine-strong final by Spain's Ruth Beitia and Kazakh Marina Aitova, who both also looked comfortable jumping in the packed in-field.

"I'm happy, I didn't waste too much energy," Vlasic said. "It's always a stressful competition when it's qualification.

"It's too messy — there's a lot of people. Now it's nine of us so it's much easier. For me the final will be another competition."

In what promises to be a tight men's heptathlon, defending champion Bryan Clay and 2009 world outdoor decathlon gold medallist Trey Hardee both ran season's best in the 60m, of 6.67 and 6.80sec respectively.

"It's always nice to get off with a good start," said Beijing Olympics decathlon champion Clay. "The race was not pretty but I'll take the time."

The Americans sat in second and third spots (on 1881 and 1836 points) after failing to shine in the second event of the long jump.

Ukraine's Oleksiy Kasyanov, who heart-breakingly missed out on a world decathlon medal despite leading after eight of the 10 events, jumped a best of 7.78m to take the overall lead on 1912 points.

Czech veteran Roman Sebrle, competing in his seventh world indoors, jumped a season's best of 7.49m for fourth place on 1745 points.

Australia's reigning Olympic champion Steve Hooker made easy work of qualification in the men's pole vault, but French world outdoor bronze medallist Renaud Lavillenie bombed out at the eventual qualifying mark of 5.60m.

Hooker joined eight others in today's final by clearing 5.60 on his only attempt.

"I jumped just before the equipment broke, so that made it much easier," the Australian said after the competition was interrupted because of a problem with one of the standards on which the bar rests.

Lavillenie and US 2004 Olympic champion Tim Mack were among the victims, both ending their day at 5.45 metres.