Track: Hodgkinson eyes the 1500m

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Middle-distance runner Toni Hodgkinson was unable to make her 800m final after a sixth placing in her semifinal on Saturday night.

Hodgkinson tracked eventual winner Stephanie Graf of Austria through 600m but then found herself lacking her usual finishing power and faded in the home straight.

"I felt quite good with 200 to go but with 100 left I really started to feel uncomfortable and it surprised me because I thought I would go 1 min 58," she said.

Instead, the 28-year-old clocked 1m59.84s, slower than her first-round race.

The pace of her semifinal was much quicker than the first round, the first 400m run in 56.23 sec, two seconds faster than the other race won by former world champion Maria Mutola of Mozambique.

Hodgkinson was elbowed throughout the race, though she did not believe this affected her performance. "A lot of them are very big, strong girls and they give a good hit but that isn't why I didn't get through tonight."

Having failed to repeat her 1996 performance, when she made the Atlanta final, Hodgkinson has now set her eyes on making the 1500m final. The qualifying heats start on Wednesday.