Mackenzie Little and Kathryn Mitchell progressed to the javelin final, while Peyton Craig was also comfortably through to the 800m semis. 

Stewart McSweyn has been added to the 5000m final after a fall in front of him. 

Five Australians will get another chance in the repechage rounds, including Michelle Jenneke who fell in her 100m hurdle heat. For seven athletes their Paris campaigns are sadly over. 

Little and Mitchell advance to javelin final

World Championship bronze medallist Mackenzie Little threw 62.82m on her second attempt to automatically progress to the final on Saturday. It was the fifth best throw across the two qualifying groups.

“It's just a relief more than anything, with more expectations because of Budapest last year,” Mackenzie said.

“This is very different from Tokyo when I was just amazed, young and naive. I managed to throw well in qualifying there and I made it to the final and that was just like the best thing that could possibly ever happen.

“It's pretty remarkable atmosphere here but that can add to the nerves if not ready. I’m sure all the top girls will be firing in the final.”

Australian record holder Kathryn Mitchell qualified with her second qualifying throw of 62.40m. The 42-year-old’s season best gets her through to her fourth consecutive Olympic final.

“That is just a huge relief to do it and sit out the three rounds and have to fight. So she (Mackenzie) was relieved. I was relieved. And it was really nice.

“So much anxiety, so much pressure, so difficult to just relax and let it go. But, you know, it's my fourth time.”

Two-time world champion and Tokyo bronze medallist Kelsey-Lee Barber threw a season best in Group B, but 57.73m wasn’t enough to progress. 

“There’s a lot of emotion and I think it's going to take some time to unpack it all, but I'm being really strong on myself to not let the inner critic come to the front door on this one.

“To have three Olympic experiences and for that one to honestly be walking away with the crowd and the atmosphere and the enjoyment of it all as one of my favourites, I'll cherish that.

“I got a pretty significant injury to my elbow at the end of April, and that had a pretty intensive recovery period. I've had six weeks of throwing to today, and so everything was fast and accelerated and it was a build right to the end. But that was this year's story, this year's journey.”

Craig runs superbly to progress to 800m semis, Bol and Deng to repechage

Peyton Craig,19, showed why he is considered a rising star of the sport. He was always in a top-three qualifying position in heat one and looked comfortable as he placed third in 1:45.81.

The former triathlete crossed the line just behind Canadian world champion Marco Arop.

“Those two races in Europe proved to me that I am good enough at this level,” Peyton said.

“That race solidified in my mind I'm going to be an Olympic semi-finalist and hopefully an Olympic finalist, if all things go right,” Peyton said.

“I wanted to get out strong, give myself the opportunity to be in the race and I think that 1st 200 really set me up. 

“In hindsight, there's a lot of things I could have done better. I put a pretty silly spurt on at about 200m that I didn't probably need to. I probably could have hung on until the straight, but, you know, I'm through and that's all that matters.”

Australian record holder Joseph Deng ran a season best of 1:45.87 to place sixth in what would be the fastest heat. 

He was well positioned with 150m to run before falling back to sixth.

“It ran pretty well and only my third 800 of the season so I was pretty happy with that,” Joseph said. 

“I needed this race in my legs. So coming tomorrow, I think I can run quicker.”

Peter Bol who was fourth at the last Olympics in Tokyo. He seemed to conserve energy for the repechage once the automatic spots were gone. He was seventh in 1:47.50.

“That was not too bad, to be honest. It’s been a pretty rough season, obviously, so being out here is pretty special,” Bol said.

“It’s still a bit different to Tokyo. A lot more expectations and, man, look at the crowd out there. It's pretty amazing to be out here.

“At the start of the year, when we heard of this repechage, I wouldn't want to be there. Now we're here tomorrow. Which is actually pretty special because if it was a normal Olympics, you wouldn't be running the next day. So it's pretty cool to have that repechage round.”

Mucci, Clay and Jenneke through to hurdles repechage, Jenneke okay after fall

Celeste Mucci was the first 100m hurdler to race for Australia. The 24-year-old on Olympic debut placed seventh in 13.05s and will race the repechage.

Michelle Jenneke in the next heat had a great start and was leading before she hit the third hurdle and fell. She managed to finish the race and will now refocus for the repechage round.

“I’m all right. I actually feel like I’m in great shape,” Michelle said.

“I just felt something pop in my lead leg down towards my knee, and that’s why I lost all power and that’s why I took a tumble. I really wanted to make sure I got up and finished. First of all because it’s the Olympic Games and second, there was still a chance to do the repechage.

“I’ve got to go back and chat to the medical team but I’m really hoping it will be alright.

“I thought I was going to come out and run a PB today, so obviously a little disappointed.” 

Liz Clay, who fell in the heats at last year’s world championships and badly injured herself, saw Michelle fall on the television in the call room before she raced. 

The 29-year-old was able to run a good race but finished fourth in 12.94s, one place from progressing to the semi-finals. She gets another chance in the repechage.

McDonald’s narrow miss and McSweyn gets added to 5000m final  

In dramatic scenes across the two 5000m heats, Australia will have one finalist. In the opening heat

Stewart McSweyn was sitting in eighth after 4000m as the pace finally started picking up. 

He was in the hunt for the top eight spot needed over the final lap and into the home straight he had work to do and was sprinting for his life, when athletes fell in front of him and impeded his run. He finished up 12th in 14:12.31, and three seconds off eighth but a successful protest has him added to the final along with other athletes.

“I'm happy I stayed up. A lot of the guys hit the ground, so we'll see what happens,” Stewart said after the race. 

“Obviously that's a risk you take when you're in that spot. I wasn't able to finish the race how I hoped, but I guess we've got to wait and see what the officials make of it.”

The second heat had drama early when a cameraman was on the track. Morgan McDonald was well positioned and running well. In the final sprint to the line with a group of athletes he thought he had done enough for eighth but was ninth and missed qualifying by 0.05s with his time of 13:52.67.

“I knew it was going to be carnage, after we watched heat one right before we went out and it was absolute chaos,” Morgan said.

“We run it a bit cleaner but when you’ve got that many good people and the pace is slow it’s always going to be choppy. Despite that I think I made all the right moves and I thought I could get them back on the final lap.”

Starc, Reath and Baden miss high jump final

Brandon Starc jumped a season best of 2.24m in the men’s high jump qualifying, yet agonisingly missed a place in the final on a countback. The two early misses at 2.15m and one miss at 2.20m and 2.24m left him placed 13th, with only 12 athletes to the final.

The Tokyo Olympic finalist was disappointed to miss the final.

It was also a tough qualifying session for Olympic debutant Yual Reath and Joel Baden. Yual cleared 2.20m and Joel 2.15m.

Hall’s brave run not good enough to progress

After finishing eighth in her 1500m heat yesterday, Linden Hall did everything she could to recover her injured calf and ignore it as much as possible. 

Nothing was going to stop her from trying to join her teammates Georgia Griffith and Jessica Hull in the semi-finals.

Linden sat back from the lead early, before moving to the lead with 700m to run. In trademark fashion, she spread the field and went for home from a long way out but with half a lap to go her top-three required finish was in doubt. She fought hard to the line but faded to eighth in 4:09.05.

“I'm pretty stubborn. I was basically just going to keep lining up if I was allowed. You’re never gonna not give yourself a shot at the Olympics,” Linden, who was sixth in Tokyo, said.

Andrew Reid