Season's best for Israel Olatunde in reaching 100m semi-finals at the European Athletics Championships

Israel Olatunde ran a season's best time of 10.31 seconds to reach the semi-finals of the men's 100m at the European Athletics Championships in Rome.

Running from lane six in heat two, Olatunde came home third and was comfortably amongst the 14 competitors, in eight place, who will contest the semis on Saturday.

"I feel good; I just want to come out here, give a good performance and get through the rounds," was Olatunde's reaction when he spoke to RTÉ Sport afterwards.

"It's a bit weird with the qualification process this time, the top-14 fastest times. I just had to go out and race and finish as high as you can, that's what championships are all about."

A strong finish in the last 30 metres was key in Olatunde's progression, and on that, he added: "That's what me and my coach Daniel Kilgallon have been working on; it's all a process and it's about getting better race by race. I'm excited for the semi-finals tomorrow."

Ciara Mageean and Sarah Healy both advanced to the final of the 1500m.

Mageean clocked four minutes 6.81 seconds as Britain's Jemma Reekie won the first of two heats in 4:06.68, with Italy's Ludovica Cavalli filling the runner-up berth.

"The aim was to be in the top six," Mageean told RTÉ Sport afterwards. "I came into it with a plan to try and not waste too much energy out there.

"I'm maybe not as comfortable running a bit further back in the field. But I had a race in Ostrava where I did that and came through. So I had every belief in myself that nobody's running faster than me over the last 200.

"So I just kept myself there or thereabouts, make sure I'm in that top six. That's job done for Sunday now."

Ciara Mageean finishes third in her 1500m heat to advance to the final at the European Athletics Championships.