Around 15 hours after her last leg heroics in the mixed 4x400m relay final, Femke Bol turned her focus to the 400m hurdles and the reigning world and European champion sauntered into the semifinals.
Bol eased to victory in heat three in 53.38 which was not just the fastest time of the morning in the Stade de France but also the fastest ever heat recorded in the history of the Olympic Games.
Her great rival Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone - the world record-holder and reigning Olympic champion - was also among the heat winners, progressing through the last heat in 53.60 ahead of Morocco’s Noura Ennadi (55.26) and France’s European silver medallist Louise Maraval who progressed in third in 55.32.
One of the loudest cheers of the morning was reserved for Sasha Zhoya in the 110m hurdles heat and the popular and charismatic Frenchman qualified automatically from the last heat in third in 13.43 in a race won by world champion Grant Holloway in 13.01 to solidify his credentials as the gold medal favourite.
Other significant qualifiers included Switzerland’s European indoor champion Jason Joseph who came through to win heat four in 13.26 by 0.01 ahead of recently crowned European champion Lorenzo Simonelli from Italy.
After contrasting fortunes in yesterday’s 100m, Brits Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita both secured an easy passage through their respective 200m heats.
Frustrated to miss out on a place in the 100m final, Asher-Smith began her 200m campaign with a 22.28 clocking to finish second in her heat behind Nigeria’s Favour Ofili in 22.24.
Fourth in the 100m final, Neita strode out to victory in her 200m heat in 22.39, leading a European sweep of the qualifying places ahead of Tasa Jiya from the Netherlands (22.74) and France’s European bronze medallist Helene Parisot (22.99).
Tentoglou on course for back-to-back long jump titles
Reigning champion Miltiadis Tentoglou sailed into the long jump final with his first effort of 8.32m, by far the best of the two pools.
Other notable qualifiers included Czechia’s Radek Juska who set a season’s best of 8.15m to qualify with the second longest jump of the morning and match the automatic qualifying distance.
European bronze medallist Simon Ehammer and European silver medallist Mattia Furlani - the latter also the silver medallist behind Tentoglou at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow - also advanced with 8.09m and 8.01m respectively.
Krista Tervo missed out on a place in the European final in Rome just under two months ago but the Finn ensured her place in the Olympic final in Paris with a national record of 74.79m, the best throw across the two pools.
Tervo is joined in the final by her teammate and predecessor as Finnish record-holder Silja Kosonen. The reigning European U23 champion was visibly relieved to throw 72.11m on her third attempt after a foul and a modest effort of 68.51m to move into one of the 12 qualifying spots.
Denmark's Katrine Koch Jacobsen also surpassed the automatic qualifying standard of 73 metres with 73.04m while reigning European champion Sara Fantini progressed with 72.40m.
Also making it through to the final - but only just - was the three-time reigning Olympic champion and world record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk from Poland. In her final Olympic appearance, Wlodarczyk qualified for her fifth successive Olympic final in 12th-place with 71.06m.
Steven Mills for European Athletics