Ireland athletes Mark English and Sarah Lavin both produced composed performances to reach the semi-finals of their events at the Olympics.
Letterkenny athlete English, 31, was second in his 800m heat after running a tactically impressive race as his time of 1:45.15 left him only 0.02 seconds behind new French star Gabriel Tual.
Lavin, 30, clocked 12.73 seconds – only 0.11 seconds off her personal best – to finish second in her 100m hurdles heat behind Jamaica’s two-time World Champion Danielle Williams, who won in 12.59.
The Limerick woman finished ahead of Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundi who clocked 12.81 in third which was 0.40 down on her European Championships’ silver-medal winning run in June.
The Irish woman was a disappointing seventh in the Rome final after clattering the first hurdle.
Lavin’s Ireland team-mate Brian Fay failed to reach the 5,000m final after finishing 13th in 13:55.35 in a heat won by Jakob Ingebrigtsen as he regrouped from his disappointing fourth place in Tuesday’s 1500m final.
The 5,000m heats were a chaotic affair with athletes falling in both races which left organisers faced with the difficult task of deciding whether some fallers should be given final berths.
Sophie O’Sullivan (1500m) and Sarah Healy (1500m) are also involved in Wednesday’s busy morning session with medal hope Rhasidat Adeleke competing in the 400m semi-finals in the evening programme.