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 Bolt did not run in Saturday's morning heats but will take his place
in the evening finals after his team mates set the fastest
qualifying time at Beijing's national stadium.
Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell, Rasheed Dwyer and Nickel Ashmeade won
their heat in a slick time of 37.41 seconds, the fastest time in the
world this year.
France finished second behind Jamaica in 37.88, recording the second
fastest time overall, while the United States, who loom as the
biggest threat to Jamaica for the gold medal, set the third best
time of 37.91 in winning their heat.
Bolt has already won the individual 100m and 200m events and is
attempting to complete the sprint treble for the third time at the
world championships after previously achieving the feat in 2009 and
2013.
Jamaica also topped the qualifiers for the women's one-lap relay
when the ace team of Sherone Simpson, Natasha Morrison, Kerron
Stewart and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the individual 100m champion,
won their heat in 41.84.
The U.S. won the other heat in 42.00 to qualify second fastest
overall after a blistering second leg run from Allyson Felix.
As expected, the Americans set the fastest qualifying times for both
the men's and women's 4x400m events, which will be decided on Sunday
night, the last day of the championship, while Ashton Eaton
maintained his lead in the decathlon after seven of the 10 events.
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Eaton, the reigning world and Olympic champion and world record
holder, set the second fastest time in the 110m hurdles, and threw
the discus 43.34 meters.
Second-placed Canadian Damian Warner finished just ahead of Eaton in
both disciplines to trim the deficit but still trailed the American
by 131 points with just the pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m to
go.
(Reporting by Julian Linden in Singapore; Editing by Sudipto
Ganguly)
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