• World Athletics Championships

Farah cruises into 5,000m final

Mo Farah remains on course for a golden double at the World Athletics Championships after cruising through his 5,000m heat to qualify for Friday's final.

Farah showed no ill effects following his 10,000m triumph in Moscow, despite admitting that he had found Saturday's race harder than he expected.

But any thoughts that his efforts over the longer distance would curb his prospects in the 5,000m, where Farah is the defending champion, were soon forgotten as he hit the front in the final kilometre, easing off on the final bend once his qualification had been assured.

"That was alright," said Farah, who jogged over the line while chatting with American training partner Galen Rupp. "I just wanted to do as little work as possible, freshen my legs up and get ready for the final. I did that, so I've just got to recover now and get ready for Friday."

Farah finished just behind Rupp in fifth, posting a time of 13min 23.93sec, and later insisted the hardest thing was the 6am wake-up call for the race.

"We looked across and with the top five qualifying we knew were going to do that, so it was about saving as much energy as we could," Farah said.

"I just wanted to feel comfortable. I didn't want to have to sprint all out and tire myself out for Friday, so it was just about getting through. It's about the next step now."

Perry Shakes-Drayton put on another impressive display in the 400m hurdles semi-finals, winning the second heat in a time of 53.93sec. She will be joined in Thursday night's final by fellow Briton Eilidh Child, who ran 54.32 in the first heat to qualify.

British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson missed out on a medal after finishing fifth - placing second in the final event, the 800m.

She had moved herself within sight of the medals with a personal best in the long jump heading into the 800m.

Johnson-Thompson had to beat third-placed Dafne Schippers by 2.92sec and Antoinette Nana Djimou in fourth by 2.0sec, as well as stay within 0.41sec of Claudia Rath, behind her in sixth, to claim bronze.

However, Hanna Melnychenko claimed the gold medal, with Canada's Brianne Theisen-Eaton taking silver and Schippers snapping up bronze.

Johnson-Thompson's 6.56m leap moved her up to fourth in the standings before the penultimate event, but even another personal best of 40.86m in the javelin saw her slip to fifth.

Olympic high jump bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz made light work of qualifying for Thursday's final after comfortably clearing 2.29m.

Elsewhere, Yelena Isinbayeva took gold in the women's pole vault, clearing 4.89m to delight the home crowd.

The double Olympic champion had beaten America's Jennifer Suhr and Yarisley Silva, and with the pair out of the way Isinbayeva attempted to smash her world record of 5.06m. However, the Russian was unable to add further glory after three tries.

LaShawn Merritt meanwhile blew away world and Olympic champion Kirani James in the men's 400m, with the American romping to victory with James finishing down in seventh.

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