DEFENDING champion Keely Hodgkinson cruised through the fastest-ever women’s 800m semi-final in European Athletics Championships history to secure her spot in this evening’s final.

The two-time world and Tokyo Olympic silver medal winner clocked 1:58.07 to stake her spot as the fastest qualifier on day five of competition in Rome.

Fellow Britons Erin Wallace (1:59.89), who came sixth in Hodgkinson’s heat, and Alexandra Bell (2:00.57) narrowly missed out on the final.

Hodgkinson said: “This is way too early for me and less than 24 hours since the last race. I felt good — I think today I wanted to be a bit more where I was comfortable with on the pace.

“A couple of the girls were saying thank you afterwards because they got PBs.”

The British quartet of Asha Philip, Amy Hunt, Dina Asher-Smith and Desiree Henry comfortably saw themselves through to the women’s 4x100m relay final with 42.25, the best time for a women’s European 4x100m team this year.

With less than 50 days to go until the Olympic Games open in Paris, it was a different story for their male counterparts CJ Ujah, Jona Efoloko, Richard Kilty and Romell Glave, who finished eighth and last in their heat and will miss the final.