The 27-year-old World Champion from St. Kitts-Nevis had the luxury of seeing what all his major rivals looked like, as he competed in the 10th and final heat of the men's century. Kim shook off the doubts that have surrounded him this season, running a smooth 10.11 to qualify easily for the next round of competition.

"In a race I want to take the lead as soon as possible," said the young Kittitian. "I tried to take this race really easy, but I couldn't. I didn't want to run that fast. I am in good shape. If I had a couple of bad races earlier this season they don't mean anything any more."

Shawn Crawford (USA) recorded the fastest time of the preliminaries - 10.02 seconds - in a heat that included Barbados' Obadele Thompson, who also advanced. Defending Olympic Champion, Maurice Greene of the USA, won his heat handily.

Daniel Bailey, weeks away from his 18th birthday, clocked 10.51 seconds to finish well out of the running in the men's 100. A finalist at the World Junior Championships in Italy last month, Daniel shares the fourth-fastest junior time in the world this year, but he could only place sixth in Heat 9 in Athens.

There was better luck for Hazel-Ann Regis and Tiandra Ponteen, running for Grenada and St Kitts-Nevis, respectively, in the women's quarter-mile. In Heat 3, Hazel-Ann was third in 51.66 seconds, running out of lane 2. In Heat 6, Tiandra needed to be one of the six fastest runners after the automatic qualifiers were decided, and she accomplished that with a time of 51.17 from Lane 8.

Later today, World Indoors Champion Alleyne Francique of Grenada will attempt to make his second Olympics final in the men's 400m dash. He will run in the third semifinal, in lane 6, with the very quick Otis Harris (USA) on his inside shoulder. Also in action Saturday evening will be Collins, in the second round of the 100. Semifinals for the women's 400 are on Sunday, with the two Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States athletes in the first semi.