Delighted Elise Thorner clocked a new personal best to qualify for the women’s 3000m steeplechase final on a sweltering third morning at the World Athletics Championships for the Novuna GB & NI team.

Thorner (Helen Clitheroe, Yeovil Olympiad) finished third in her heat in a time of nine minutes 14.37 seconds to automatically progress to Wednesday’s final.

The 24-year-old is enjoying a breakthrough season after moving back to the UK from the University of Florida.

She won her first Novuna UK Athletics Championships in a record time last month and was beaming with her performance here.

“This is what dreams are made of,” she said.

“I wouldn’t have said I would have got a PB in the heat but when I spoke with my coach, we said we are going to treat this like a final.

“This is the World’s so we are going to put everything out there. I think my last k was really strong and that put me in a PB position. Overall I am really happy with how it went.”

Thorner’s Novuna Great Britain and Northern Ireland teammate Sarah Tait (Linda Smith, Lasswade) did not progress after withdrawing after pulling out after a stumble early in her race.

The 24-year-old was injured the water jump and was unable to continue in her heat.

Elsewhere, Emily Newnham safely progressed to the women’s 400m hurdles semi-finals.

Newnham (Nick Dakin, Shaftesbury Barnet) finished second in the final heat of the morning to qualify automatically, while her time of 54.59 seconds was the 10th quickest overall. However team-mate Lina Nielsen (Tony Lester, Shaftesbury Barnet) unfortunately did not qualify after finishing sixth in her heat.

Meanwhile, Emile Cairess (Renato Canova, Leeds City) admits the Tokyo temperatures got the better of him after pulling out of the men’s marathon with just 2.5 miles to go.

The Bradford runner was fourth in the Olympics last summer and was in medal contention again after forging part of a 15-man pack at the front.

However, the energy-sapping conditions and 83% humidity at 9am – wore him down and he started to drop back from the leaders and eventually stopped.

“Obviously I’m disappointed but I tried my best and that’s all you can do with it,” he said.

“I tried my best. I feel I just got too hot, simple as that really, conditions were so tough, it’s just really hot.”

When I stopped, I just took ages to just feel all right again, I’ve cooled down now but it took a while. Earlier in the session there was a blow for Molly Caudery (Scott Simpson, Thames Valley) – who had to pull out of the women’s pole vault qualification round after suffering an ankle injury sustained in the warm-up.

In the men’s hammer qualification, Jake Norris (Nick Ridgeon, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) threw a best of 73.07 metres to finishing 25th overall – with the top 12 going through.

Follow this link for the latest results and action from Tokyo 2025.

Photo credit: UK Athletics / Sam Mellish