Three runners who were track standouts for Alabama started their competition at the Paris Olympics by advancing from the Round 1 races in the men’s 400-meter dash on Sunday.

At Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, Grenada’s Kirani James won Heat 5 in 44.78 seconds.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards finished second in Heat 2 in 44.31 seconds.

Nigeria’s Samuel Ogazi finished second in Heat 4 with a personal-best of 44.50 seconds.

The top three finishers in each of the six heat races advanced to the semifinals, which are set for Tuesday.

James has a complete collection of Olympic medals in the event. He won the gold medal in London in 2012, silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and bronze in Tokyo in 2021.

Two former Auburn sprinters reached the semifinals of the men’s 100-meter dash with their performances on Saturday. But Nigeria’s Kayinsola Ajayi and Favour Ashe were eliminated from the contention after reaching the final 27 runners.

On Sunday, Ashe ran 10.08 seconds to finish sixth in Semifinal 1 and Ajayi ran 10.13 seconds to finish fifth in Semifinal 2. The top two runners from each of the three semifinals as well as the next two fastest runners advanced to the medal race. The slowest time to advance was 9.83 seconds.

Former Crimson Tide sprinter Olivia Fotopoulou ran 23.07 seconds to finish fifth in the fifth of the six heats in Round 1 for the women’s 200-meter dash. The first three finishers in each heat advanced to the semifinals, with the rest of the runners sent to the Repechage Round. Those four races on Monday will send the winner of each and the next two fastest finishers to the semifinals.

At Bercy Arena in Paris on Sunday, former Auburn gymnast Suni Lee won her sixth Olympic medal – bronze in the individual competition on the uneven bars. Lee also won the bronze medal on the uneven bars at the Tokyo Games and now is the first U.S. woman to have two Olympic medals in the event.

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Lee scored 14.800 for her performance, and her execution score of 8.400 was the second highest of the eight competitors for the medals. But only one of the competitors had a lower difficulty score than Lee.

Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour won the gold medal on the uneven bars with a 15.700 score, with China’s Qiyuan Qiu second at 15.500.

Lee is scheduled to compete on the balance beam on Monday.

Earlier in the Paris Olympics, Lee won a gold medal as the United States captured the artistic gymnastics team competition and a bronze medal in the individual all-around. At the Tokyo Olympics, Lee got the gold in all-around and silver in team.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.