Jemma Reekie cruised to victory and Nicole Yeargin landed a share of a British Record on a strong opening day for the Scots in Paris.
Josh Kerr and Neil Gourley had earlier safely negotiated their opening heats in the Men’s 1500m and will race again on Sunday in the semis.
So, too, will Jemma who dominated her heat one race in the Stade de France as she wore the Team GB colours at her second Olympics.
A time of 2:00.01 saw her clear of the field with only the top three assured of progress with the new repechage ‘second chance’ system for the others.
Nicole, the Pitreavie AAC athlete whose mum hails from Dunfermline, was well set-up by her team-mates with Sam Reardon leading off; Laviai Nielsen on the second leg and Alex Haydock-Wilson handing over after the third leg.
‘They did the job so I just had to go,’ said Nicole, as thie quartet broke the British Record in this developing event.
‘I couldn’t see anyone on the backstretch, so I was just running for my life. I couldn’t hear anyone as it was so loud.
‘I felt like I was cruising on the second bend, but I could see her coming, so it was all about holding it and bringing the team home for the win and a British Record.’
The United States set a new World Record for the Mixed Relay 4x400m in the opening heat at 3:07.41.
Earlier on Friday, Josh Kerr and Neil Gourley successfully opened their Paris 2024 campaigns in the Men’s 1500m.
Josh was first up in the opening heat and after displaying great patience and keeping out of trouble towards the back of the field, he advanced after the bell and led the race home for the victory in 3:35.83.
The stacked nature of the Men’s 1500m event was emphasised in heat two as a number of well-known names missed the top six automatic qualifying and were put into Saturday’s repechage round. Team GB’s George Mills was one of those in 10th place.
There was no such issue for Neil, thankfully, as the Scot ran a controlled race to claim fifth place and qualify for the semi-finals on Sunday with 3:37.18.
‘The goal here was just to stay relaxed and be confident in my fitness and I think I did that today,’ said Josh.
‘Everyone gets anxious in these first rounds because of all the build-up, the hype and it’s a big stadium with lots of people.
So I just made sure I stayed relaxed and when it was time to go, I put the burners on . . . maybe a little bit too hard.
‘I thought everyone was…
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