Nouria Merah-Benida of Algeria and Kutre Dulecha of Ethiopia on Thursday qualified for Saturday's finals of the women's 1500m race, setting up an absorbing day of athletics for Africa.

Merah-Benida won her semi-final heat in Sydney in the fastest time of the day, 4 minutes 5.24 seconds. Duleche was second in her heat, with a time of 4:06.78seconds. Seloua Ouaziz of Morocco did not qualify, running 7th in her heat.

In the women's high jump competition, Hestrie Cloete of South Africa came second in her round to qualify for Saturday's final.

Earlier this week, Africans took nine of 15 places in the men's 5000m final and eight of the 20 places in the women's 10000m final, both to be run on Saturday.

However, African athletes fell out of the 200m races in Thursday's semi-finals. In the women's race, Mercy Nku of Nigeria ran 6th, in a time of 23.4 seconds, a second behind the eventual gold medallist, Marion Jones of the United States. Leonie Mani of Cameroon was 8th in the same semi-final in a time of 23.47 seconds. Louise Ayetotche of Cote d'Ivoire was 5th in her heat, in 22.76 seconds.

Jones ran her final in 21.84seconds to win the second of the five gold medals she is aiming to win. Pauline Davis-Thompson of the Bahamas took silver in 22.27s, and Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe, bronze in 22.28s.

In the men's semi-finals, Stephane Bukland of Mauritius was 6th, in 20.56 seconds, and Francis Obikwelu of Nigeria 7th, in 20.71seconds. Konstantinos Kenteris of Greece won gold in 20.09seconds, Darren Campbell of Britain silver (20.14second) and Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago was third (20.20seconds).