Olympics 2024: Keely Hodgkinson wins heat as she eyes 800m gold ...

Team GB's Keely Hodgkinson has said she was glad to make it through her 800-metre heat as she eyes gold at her second Olympic Games.

The women's 800 metres may be Team GB's strongest event on the track. Hodgkinson is a major favourite to win gold, with Jemma Reekie also tipped to pick up a medal and Phoebe Gill hoping to make the final, too.

All three qualified through Friday's first round, with Hodgkinson and Reekie winning their heats and Gill advancing via a largely untroubled third-place finish.

"I don't really like heats. They're not my favourite. They always feel so uncomfortable," Hodgkinson told reporters afterward. "I was just glad to qualify. I feel like the girls have really stepped it up because looking at my heats, I was like, 'it's quite tough actually for a heat.'

"I dunno what the time was, so I'm just glad to make it."

Hodgkinson is yet to win a major world medal, with silver at the previous Olympics and at the past two world championships. However, she is on red-hot form entering Paris after carding the sixth-fastest time in history at the London Diamond League on July 20.

With reigning Olympic champion Athing Mu of Team USA not competing, Hodgkinson's biggest competition in the event is Kenya's Mary Moraa.

The semifinal is scheduled for Sunday, with the final set for Monday.

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When asked if the final could feature all three British runners, Hodgkinson said: "I don't see why not. I feel like amazing things happen at championships. I think Phoebe's done really well. She's taken it all in her stride. It's such a big experience for her."

Gill, at 17 years old, is competing at her first Olympic Games and hopes to make the final. She was asked what went through her mind as she stood on the start line.

"I thought you can do this and don't get psyched out. I think a few swear words were muttered, but anything to psych yourself up, I guess."

Gill, the fastest under-18 runner in Europe at the 800 metres, said she is taking in the experience.

"I'm just very proud of myself because I was saying out there that I was looking at photos of my younger self yesterday doing primary school course country leagues, and I think she would just be so happy that I'm here now at Paris doing the Olympics because it's a big dream of mine," she said.