World champion Josh Kerr eased through his heat to progress to the 1500m semi-finals on the opening morning of track and field action at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Kerr (Danny Mackey, Edinburgh) won his heat in a time of 3:35.83 and will be joined in the semi-finals by fellow Scot Neil Gourley (Stephen Haas, Giffnock North) who came home fifth in his heat in 3:37.18.

“The track was definitely quick,” said Kerr, who won the world title in Budapest last year and Olympic bronze three years ago in Tokyo.

“The goal here was just to stay relaxed and be confident in my fitness and I think I did that.

“Everyone gets really angsty in these first rounds because of all the build-up, the hype and it’s a big stadium with lots of people, so 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 going to be battling with me. But I felt exactly how I thought I would, and it was a reassuring thing.”

Gourley needed a sprint finish to book his place, with only the top six in each heat progressing automatically.

“Physically I am in the best spot I’ve ever been in,” he said.

“The last few worlds I have gone in carrying something. So it is the first time I’ve come in with a clean bill of health. That’s based on the work I’ve done in training, which doesn’t mean everything, but it’s a strong positive indicator.”

Meanwhile, George Mills (Thomas Dreissigacker, Brighton Phoenix) will need to run again in the repechage after placing tenth, clocking 3:35.99.

“There was no bad luck, it just wasn’t good enough,” he said. “I’ll be ready for the repechage.”

All three 100m women came through their first races to progress to Saturday’s semi-finals at the Stade de France.

Daryll Neita (Marco Airale, Cambridge) clocked a 10.92 second (+1.5 m/s) season’s best to win her heat while Dina Asher-Smith (Edrick Floreal, Blackheath & Bromley) and Imani Lara Lansiquot (Ryan Freckleton, Sutton and District) progressed in in 11.01 secs (+1.0 m/s) and 11.10 secs (+1.2 m/s) respectively.

“I’m in great form,” said Neita. “To me it’s just about execution at this championships and really believing in myself and just going for it. It’s a stepping stone for tomorrow.

“I’ve got the first run out the way and almost got a personal best. I’m staying composed and focussed on the next round.”

Asher-Smith added: “The crowd’s amazing and the job was to come out, qualify and then raise it a level for tomorrow. All three British girls through, so job done.

“It’s a beautiful purple track, I’m happy I just wanted to get started. You’re just waiting and waiting and I’m happy and looking forward to tomorrow.”

Last year Lansiquot was disqualified for a false start at the World Championships in Budapest but she stayed ice cool in front of a capacity crowd in Paris.

She said: “The demons of Budapest are gone. I said that I wasn’t going to let that get in my way. Obviously last year [at the World Championships] I came out and false started in the heat. It was about putting my best foot forward and I did that.”

However, there was disappointment for Morgan Lake (Robbie Grabarz, Windsor, Slough and Eton) who didn’t make the women’s high jump final. Her best clearance was 1.88m, four centimetres outside the required qualifying standard.

Three years ago Lake reached the Olympic final in Tokyo but was forced to withdraw through injury.

“Obviously not at all what I wanted, it has not been the best season after last year,” she said.

“I’m still not sure why that is. I was focusing on the final before I had even qualified for it, which is something I should be used to now. This is my third Olympics and I know every round matters. I was playing around with the maths and I thought I’d done enough to go through, but it turns out it wasn’t.

“I felt really good coming into this. I’d jumped 1.95m last week. I knew what it would take. I still haven’t processed what went wrong.”

See Olympic results here.