Aug. 12, 2014

ZURICH, Switzerland – Rising sophomore Jussi Kanervo, who is representing Finland, qualified for the semifinals in the 400-meter hurdles at the European Championships this morning, by clocking a new personal time of 50.35. The time was more than three-tenths under his previous record.

Kanervo ran in heat one, finishing sixth, and was forced to wait to see if his time would be enough to advance as only the top four times in each heat were automatically qualified. As it turned out, he was in the fastest qualifying heat of the day. The top five hurdlers in Kanervo’s heat each finished with times under 50 seconds, with the top three going 1-2-3 overall in qualifying.

Kanervo finished 18th overall, besting four automatic qualifiers and two other qualifiers.

The semifinals are slated to start Wednesday at 11:55 a.m., ET. Earlier that morning, at 5:40 a.m., Kanervo will begin competition in the 110-meter hurdles as he attempts to qualify for the semifinals in that event as well.

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