ANDY BUTCHART made himself right at home in the best of company as the Perthshire prospect breezed into tomorrow night’s 5000m final in Rio with a confident outing in his semi-final.

The 24-year-old soaked up the occasion of his Olympic debut by getting the job done with fifth in 13:20.08.

The Dunblane runner said: “It was hard work, it always is, I guess I knew I just had to make top five and I pushed for it and luckily I got it.

“I actually expected a few people to come past – I didn’t kick that hard and I didn’t go flat out but it was comfortable and somehow they stayed behind me. On the home straight I could see there was only five of us away so I kind of relaxed on the home straight which was nice.”

Defending champion Mo Farah confessed to a little fatigue after his exertions in winning the 10,000m last weekend and had to evade another tripping to progress in third place in his semi.

Farah said: “It was quite nerve wracking again you know – just getting back in the zone again – sometimes you just take yourself away from it a little bit, and that’s what I did a bit as soon as I won.

“Emotionally you go through a lot and it’s a wake up now – the job ain’t done yet. I still have to now recover, just lock myself in a room and just get ready for this race.”

Lynsey Sharp progressed into tonight’s 800m semi-finals with a dominant victory in her heat with British team-mate Shelayna Oskan Clarke also through despite coming third behind South African favourite Caster Semenya.

“I was just trying to stay out of trouble and get clear runs in,” Sharp said. “You can’t do anything unless you make the final so you just have to stay out of trouble, but it was fine once I got out there.

“It’s nice to get out there but it’s also nerve-wracking against these girls I’ve not really ran against before, it’s not the usual so next round, I will find myself in more familiar territory.”

LAURA MUIR

However Scottish duo Chris Bennett and Mark Dry, along with Englishman Nick Miller, all missed out on reaching the hammer final with a highly-emotional Dry left devastated after throwing only 71.03m.

“It’s frustrating,” the Commonwealth Games medallist said. “Everyone was really struggling. It was really hard to put it together. My heart’s 100%, my mind’s 100%, my body’s just not firing. And I have no excuses.”

Elsewhere, Kenyan Conseslus Kipruto took gold in the men’s 3000m steeplechase.