McCOLGAN STUMBLE RUINS DREAM START

EILISH McColgan saw her 5,000 metres Olympic dream slip away after she was tripped twice from behind in the heats. The 30-year-old, from Dundee, was in the lead pack until two laps to go but ended up finishing tenth in 15:09.69, more than 40 seconds behind the British record she set in Oslo earlier this month. ‘That’s racing,’ she said. ‘That’s how it is. That’s probably why I needed to string it out more. But I’m obviously gutted. I’ve come in here with a massive PB. To run that is way off my best. ‘I’m just disappointed because I know how much it means to my family and they had to see that. I just had no energy after the last bigger clip. I felt everyone go past and I had no legs to come back from that.’ Fellow Brits Amy-Eloise Markovc and Jessica Judd also failed to progress, but Judd and McColgan have a second shot in next Saturday’s 10,000m final. ‘I have to just group myself mentally,’ said the Scot. ‘Up to now it was a dream season.’ Fellow Scot Jemma Reekie was second-fastest qualifier from the 800m heats, sweeping into today’s semi-finals in 1:59.97, with team-mates Keely Hodgkinson and Alex Bell also beating the cut. The 23-year-old said: ‘That was good, I’m glad to get that done. ‘It wasn’t quite as I would have liked, I didn’t quite do what I wanted, but I’m through. ‘It was a little bit messy and I was a little bit all over the place but that’s job done now.’ Zoey Clark kept her hopes of a medal alive with the second leg in a UK record of 3:31.94 that was enough to steer the Brits into tonight’s 4x400 mixed relay final from fourth place in their heat. The Aberdonian said: ‘This is our first race here, so we were blowing out the cobwebs. But we can raise our game for the final.’