Mutola reaches women's 800m semifinals in Athens

Defending champion Maria de Lurdes Mutola of Mozambique reached the semifinals of the women's 800 meters event at the Olympic Games, which kicked off its track and field competitions on Friday.

The 32-year-old finished second in heat one with a time of two minutes 1.50 seconds, behind Morocco's Hasna Benhassi in 2:01.20.

Mutola, who just recovered from an early season injury, was 13th overall but she is confident of her defence of the title.

"The hamstring injury I had is all gone now," she said. "I don' t have any problems with it any more. Maybe the break in training has worked for my benefit."

She said the time has never worried her.

"In this race, the most important thing was to proceed to the semifinals and save as much energy as possible for the following days."

Romania's Maria Cioncan, winner of heat 2, led the field in 1: 59.64.

Source: Xinhua