Priscilla Lopes-Schliep set the fastest time in the first round of the 60-metre hurdles at the indoor championships in Doha on Friday. (Hassan Ammar/Associated Press)

Canadian hurdlers Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and Perdita Felicien advanced to the semifinals in the 60-metre hurdles on Friday at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Lopes-Schliep of Whitby, Ont., won her heat with the best time of the round, 7.94 seconds.

Felicien, of Pickering, Ont., was third in her heat, but still qualified with a time of 8.04 seconds.

The semifinals and finals will be held on Saturday.

"I'm very happy to be back on point," Lopes-Schliep said. "I was able to get some good work in with my coach and physio team.

"Next stop is the semi, I hope to keep running strong into the final and push for a medal."

CBCSports.ca will begin streaming coverage of the championships on Friday at 3:45 p.m. ET.

Other top hurdlers who easily qualified included LoLo Jones of the United States and Lacene Golding-Clarke of Jamaica.

Dylan Armstrong advanced to Saturday's shot put final. The Kamloops, B.C., native finishing second in his qualifying group with a throw of 20.5 metres.

In the pole vault, Kelsie Hendry of Saskatoon qualified for the final, among five competitors who cleared 4.45 metres.

They were surpassed only by world-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva. The Russian again nearly left it too late, opting to skip the early heights before needing three attempts to clear 4.55 metres.

Isinbayeva no-heighted at the outdoor championships in Berlin in August, but was confident after Friday's session, vowing to attempt another indoor world record in the final.

Ethiopian fastest in 1,500

Nicole Edwards of Winnipeg could not move on in the 1,500, running in four minutes 16.46 seconds. Kalkidan Gezahegne, an 18-year-old Ethiopian, had the fastest time, while countrywoman Gelete Burka, the 2008 indoor champion, also qualified.

Long jumper Tabia Charles of Pickering rounds out the Canadian contingent in Doha. She will begin competing on Saturday.

Americans David Oliver and Terrence Trammell had the fastest time in the first round of men's hurdles heats, at 7.60 seconds. The last two men's Olympic 110-metre hurdle champions, Dayron Robles of Cuba and Xiang Liu of China, also qualified.

Britain's Dwain Chambers ran the fastest qualifying time in the 60 metres. The European indoor champion breezed into Saturday's semifinal in 6.59 seconds, showing that his comeback from a two-year doping ban continues to pick up speed.

American Trell Kimmons ran the second-fastest qualifying time of 6.61 seconds. He was a late replacement for Ivory Williams, who was dropped from the team after testing positive for marijuana.

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica qualified in the women's 60-metre heats with the fastest time at 7.21 seconds. Carmelita Jeter of the United States and 38-year-old Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas are among the other notable sprinters moving on to Saturday's semifinals.

Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine led Americans Bryan Clay and Trey Hardee after the first day of the men's heptathlon.

Clay, the Beijing decathlon gold medallist, botched his long jump, largely because he failed to properly time his runup.

"I was running down the runway fast but I was too close and chopping up real bad," Clay said. "I'm actually surprised I got the three fair jumps I did because I was having to chop it up pretty bad."

The shot put and high jump complete Friday's session, with the 60 hurdles, pole vault and closing 1,000 metres set for Saturday.

Olympic pole vault Steve Hooker easily advanced in a session that saw European indoor champion Renaud Lavillenie of France fail to qualify.

Women's world high jump Blanka Vlasic of Croatia had little difficulty in her qualification round.

With files from The Canadian Press & The Associated Press