Australian sprint star Rohan Browning has criticised the "clearly unfair" 100m qualifying process at the Commonwealth Games after fighting his way through to the semi-finals.
The eight runners with the fastest times in the first half of this year, including Australia's national champion Lachie Kennedy, did not have to run heats in Glasgow.
They were placed automatically in the semi-finals and joined by the 17 fastest finishers across all 11 heats, whereas usually the two fastest finishers in each heat would advance.
Browning declared it an "extremely weird" and "unheard of" progression.
"Of course it's not fair. Clearly it's not fair," Browning said.
"It's clearly been engineered to try to achieve a desired outcome.
"Whatever's motivated that decision, I don't know what it is or whether it's reasonable or not.
"But clearly it's not fair. I think everyone would agree with that."
Browning (10.24 seconds) ran second in his heat and sneaked through with the equal-16th fastest time overall in gusty conditions at Scotstoun Stadium.
"At the end of the day, this sport is meritocracy at its finest. If you're quick enough, you go through," Browning said.
"So I suppose you could say those guys have earned their place through.
"In all likelihood they're probably the guys who are paying the best (shortest) odds to make the final regardless.
"But you just don't know - some guys might be injured, some guys might be out of shape."
Fellow Australian Eddie Nketia ran 10.07 with a significant tailwind (+3.9m/s) when it grew stronger later in the morning.
Times set with tailwinds above the legal limit of +2.0m/s don't count towards records and personal bests.
Regardless, the former New Zealander was thrilled with his performance.
"All I had to do was focus on execution, just lock in what I can do and not what I can't do," Nketia said.
"It's amazing, 10.07 in the heats, so let's just see what we can do in the semis."
Australia's sprint queen Torrie Lewis qualified second-fastest in the women's 100m, running 11.15 (+2.4m/s).
"It was nice. There's definitely things in the semi to improve on but I feel confident that I can," said Lewis, who smashed her own national record with an 11.04 run in Slovakia last week.
Fellow Australians Ebony Lane and Georgia Harris also qualified for the semi-finals.
Lewis, who is running the 100m/200m double at the Games, will benefit from the unusual sprint format after being placed directly into the semi-finals for the longer event.
But the 21-year-old agreed with Browning's assessment that the format did not offer a level playing field.
"It would have been better if it was first (who qualified from each heat), just to eliminate the winds, because it's so gusty going around as well," Lewis said.
"But you know, what can you do? Just be the fastest no matter what."
Lewis is still managing an achilles injury as she chases the Games sprint double.
"The cold doesn't help at all, but you know, I've been doing it all season and I can keep going," Lewis said.
"It's just kind of constant. It hasn't really gone away the whole season, so I'm just learning to run with it and then after these Games I can get it fixed."
Also on Monday, Australian men's long jump duo Chris Mitrevski (7.89m) and Liam Adcock (7.75m) qualified for their final, as did Lara Roberts (66.73m) and Stephanie Ratcliffe (65.73m) in the women's hammer throw. Rhiannon Clarke, Ella Azura Pardy and Briseis Brittain advanced to the final in the women's T37/38 100m.
