Britons dominate women's 800m heats

PARIS : British athletes dominated two of the six women's 800 metres qualifying heats on Friday with gold medal favourite Keely Hodgkinson looking strong and Ethiopia's Tsige Duguma producing the fastest time of the night.

Silver medallist in Tokyo, Hodgkinson set a personal best two weeks ago in London with the fastest time this year, making her the sixth-quickest of all-time.

Rounding out the British women, all three of whom qualified, was Jemma Reekie, who just missed out on a medal in Tokyo, and 17-year-old Phoebe Gill who started strongly on her Olympic debut with a third-place finish in her heat.

"To get that first run out of the way is very good," Hodgkinson, 22, said after finishing in one minute 59.31 seconds. "I've been very vocal about what I want to do here... but anything can happen, so I'm going to stay on my toes."

American Athing Mu, the reigning Olympic champion was a notable absentee, having failed to qualify for Paris after falling at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

"I was gutted that she's not here," Hodgkinson said. "It would have been great to race her, because you want to beat the best, and it's a shame that she's not here."

Ethiopia's Duguma clocked the fastest time with 1:57.90 and Worknesh Mesele set a personal best of 1:58.07.

The stadium erupted for France's Renelle Lamote, helping her shoot to the front of the pack on the starting gun, and she maintained her momentum to finish just behind Mesele in 1:58.59.

The first three in each of the six heats qualified for Sunday's semi-finals with the final on Monday.