Keely Hodgkinson progresses to 800m semi-finals at European Indoor Championships

Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson took the first step towards retaining her 800m title at the European Athletics Indoor Championships by winning her heat on day one.

The 2021 champion - who turns 21 tomorrow - clocked a time of 2:01.67 to advance to Saturday's semi-finals, over four seconds slower than her British record of 1:57.18, which she set at the World Indoor Tour final in Birmingham last week.

"I'm happy to qualify and not with a messy race, just clean through. Sometimes running at that [slower] pace is actually harder than running what you're used to, so I'm actually quite tired!" Hodgkinson told BBC Sport.

"It will be a nice birthday present to myself if I can defend my title. I'm looking forward to it and hopefully I can do everyone proud."

Hodgkinson will be joined in the semi-finals by compatriot Isabelle Boffey, who finished first in her heat with 2:03.24 - two hundredths of a second quicker than Hungary's Bianka Keri.

Guy Learmonth also advanced to the men's 800m semi-finals with a heat time of 1:47.51, while Morgan Lake qualified for the women's high jump final in eighth place with 1.91 on the board.

Melissa Courtney-Bryant and Hannah Nuttall also booked their spots in the women's 3000m final, while George Mills - who beat Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in his heat - and Neil Gourley reached the men's 1500m final.