Tokyo Olympics: Runner Laura Muir reaches semi-finals of the 1500m

Team GB athlete Laura Muir has gone through to the semi-finals of the 1500m at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Scottish middle-distance runner began her Games campaign overnight, finishing second in heat one, with a time of 4mins 3.89secs.

Muir, who is also the European champion, was beaten by Canada’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford but said she was saving energy for the final.

“You don’t want to have any disrespect to any of the girls out here, but I want to save as much as I can for the final.

“It has gone as smooth as it could be – I’ve been out in Japan for a couple of weeks now so feeling really prepared and it’s really good.

“It didn’t feel that fast so that’s good. I just wanted to qualify for the next round as comfortably as possible. So that felt really good out there today and I am looking forward to the semi-final.”

Other Team GB performances include:

• In the women’s 1500m Katie Snowden qualified in four minutes 02.77secs but Revee Walcott-Nolan missed out by 0.01s

• Beth Dobbin reached the 200m semi-finals after running a season’s best of 22.78 seconds

• Matt Coward- Holley and Kirsty Hegarty will compete in the shooting: mixed team trap event later

• Saskia Tidey and Charlotte Dobson, Stuart Bithell and Dylan Fletcher will compete for medals in the women’s 49er FX and men’s 49er

• Cyclist Laura Kenny will compete in the women’s team pursuit

• Tom McEwen, Oliver Townend, Laura Collett will compete in equestrian events

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee is investigating a gesture made by US athlete Raven Saunders on the podium after she won a medal in the shot put.

Saunders raised her arms into an X above her head, one of the most visible individual protests at the Games so far.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the committee is in contact with World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.