Aug. 20, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Baylor junior Jeremy Wariner (Grand Prairie, Texas) cruised to victory in his heat of the 400 meters with a time of 45.56 to advance to the semifinals Friday at the 28th Olympic Games.

Wariner held off Ingo Schultz of Germany, who came in second at 45.88, and also qualified for the semifinals. Former Baylor athlete Zsolt Szeglet of Hungary also ran in Wariner's heat and came in fourth at 46.16, but will not move on.

Wariner currently has the fastest time in the world in the event at 44.37. Alleyne Francique of Grenada, who many publications have chosen as the gold-medal favorite, has the second fastest time of 44.47 and ran a 45.32 to win his preliminary heat.

Americans Derrick Brew and Otis Harris also advanced to the semifinals. Brew won his heat with a time of 45.41, while Harris came in second in his heat but had the second-fastest time overall at 45.11.

The top two runners from each heat, plus the next eight fastest times advance to the semifinals Saturday at approximately 2 p.m. CDT. The top eight from the semifinals advance to Monday's final at approximately 2 p.m. CDT.

None of the rounds will be shown live, but can be seen at approximately 8 p.m. CDT each night on NBC.

400 METER AUTOMATIC QUALIFIERSHeat 1Alleyne Francique (Grenada)    45.88Davian Clarke (Jamaica)        45.54Heat 2Christopher Brown (Bahamas)    45.09Otis Harris (USA)              45.11Heat 3Anton Galkin (Russia)          45.43Geyman Lopez (Cuba)            45.44Heat 4Derrick Brew (USA)             45.41Brandon Simpson (Jamaica)      45.61Heat 5Carlos Santa (Dominican Rep.)  45.31Lewis Banda (Zimbabwe)         45.37Heat 6Jeremy Wariner (USA)           45.56Ingo Schultz (Germany)         45.88