World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024: Great Britain’s Jemma Reekie reaches 800m final

Great Britain’s Jemma Reekie continued her bid to win a first global medal by qualifying fastest for the women’s 800m final at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Scot Reekie, 25, judged her effort to perfection to win her semi-final in one minute 58.28 seconds and build further confidence before Sunday’s medal race.

“The final will be very tough but I want [the other athletes] to know that if they are coming to win on my track, they are going to have to work hard!” Reekie told BBC Sport.

“We have taken each race as it comes. Tonight I will sit down with [my coaches] Jon [Bigg] and Sally [Gunnell] and we’ll work it out together.

“But I think it will be a fast one.”

In winning her semi-final, Reekie, who finished fifth at last summer’s outdoor World Championships, got the better of two of her expected medal rivals to assert herself as one of the favourites for gold.

The home favourite cruised past Ethiopia’s world leader Habitam Alemu in the closing stages, with 2022 world indoor bronze medallist Halimah Nakaayi finishing third.

Elsewhere during Saturday’s morning session, Britain’s David King reached the semi-finals of the men’s 60m hurdles by finishing third in his heat in 7.64 seconds – but team-mate Tade Ojora missed out.

American Grant Holloway, the strong favourite who is looking to defend his title in that event, qualified fastest in 7.43.

Amy Hunt finished fifth in her women’s 60m heat in 7.29 secs as she continued her comeback from a long-term injury, missing out on a place in the next round. Pre-race favourites Ewa Swoboda and Julien Alfred led the successful qualifiers by both posting 7.02.

Saturday’s eagerly anticipated evening session, which begins at 19:05 GMT, could prove to be a golden one for Great Britain.

World 1500m champion Josh Kerr and fellow Scot Laura Muir, the Olympic 1500m silver medallist, will race in the 3,000m finals.

British team captain Laviai Nielsen contests the women’s 400m final and Molly Caudery, who has a world-leading 4.86m clearance this year, aims for a pole vault podium place.