American Grant Holloway cruised into the semifinals of the Paris Olympics 110m hurdles in impressive style at the Stade de France on Sunday.
But reigning champion Hansle Parchment of Jamaica could only advance as one of the fastest qualifiers after finishing fifth in his heat, outside the automatic top three spots.
Holloway clocked the fastest time of the day, 13.01 seconds, to win his heat, with the semifinals scheduled for Wednesday at 7:05 and the final a day later at 21:45.
"I'm looking forward to continue each round and obviously it's the Olympic Games so you've got to be on your Ps and Qs each round," Holloway said.
The 26-year-old is a three-time world champion and the second-fastest man in history at the event with a personal best of 12.81sec.
But he was surprisingly beaten into silver at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 by Parchment.
"The biggest thing is to execute this time and not really worry about the past and continue to show great form. All roads lead to the final," Holloway said.
"I could have done a little better the first half of the race, but that's what rounds are for. As long as I'm able to get better each round, that's the main thing."
Holloway also stressed that the world record of 12.80sec set by fellow American Aries Merritt in Brussels in 2012 was not exactly on his radar in Paris.
"The final, let's just go for the gold. Everybody is talking about a world record. If it comes, it comes, but the first thing we have to take care of is winning," he said.
As for Parchment, the Jamaican clocked 13.43sec in finishing fifth in his heat, but was unruffled.
"Everyone asks about pressure being the reigning champion," he said. "It's never about pressure, it's not part of it, I'm not thinking about it.
"I'm into the semifinals. I'll take it from there."