Defending men’s long jump champion Khotso Mokoena led the way as three South Africans qualified for the finals of their events on opening day of the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Mokoena, who clinched gold in Valencia two years ago, was third in his heat with a best distance of 7.95m, easily qualifying with the fourth best distance from both heats in his first indoor performance of the season.

One of the biggest surprises of the day came in the first heat of the event when Olympic champion Irving Saladino of Panama failed to qualify with a 7.80m third round effort after two no jumps. Australian Fabrice Lapierre led the qualifiers with an 8.19m national record.

South Africa’s distance runners had mixed fortunes with Rene Kalmer and Juan van Deventer reaching the finals of the women‘s 3 000m and men‘s 1 500m respectively.

Kalmer improved her own national indoor 3 000m record, while Juan van Deventer placed second in his 1 500m heat as they both qualified for the finals of their events.

Kalmer clocked 9:01.41, bettering her own national record set earlier this season by 1.51 seconds, to finish fourth in her heat and automatically qualify for Saturday’s final.

Aggressive from the start, Kalmer set the pace in the slower of the two heats and led through the 1 000m mark. And while she faded approaching the finish, the South African held off Britain’s Barbara Parker by 0.11 seconds to make it through the opening round.

Olympic finalist Van Deventer ran a well judged race in the first of three 1 500m heats, kicking past past Kenyan Gideon Gathimba on the final stretch to snatch second position by just 0.01 seconds and earn an automatic place in the final, also on Saturday.

The South African ran 3:40.07, finishing just behind Moroccan Amine Laalou who won the heat in 3:39.96.

Peter van der Westhuizen, however, was never in contention in the second and probably the toughest of the 1 500m heats. The South African fought valiantly to close the gap on the leaders on the penultimate lap, but faded to sixth place in 3:45.76 and crashed out in the opening round.

Mokoena, Kalmer and Van Deventer line up in the finals of their events on Saturday, while Janice Josephs will compete in the qualifying round of the women’s long jump.