Robbie Grabarz jumped an outdoor season’s best of 2.33m, his best jump since 2012, to finish an extremely credible fourth in the Olympic high jump final. A first time clearance of 2.29m, the height that saw him win bronze at London 2012, followed by a first time clearance of 2.33m put him right in the mix, but ultimately it wasn’t to be. After a challenging four years since winning Olympic bronze, Grabarz can be pleased with his effort and fourth place finish, even though a first time clearance at 2.25m would have seen him win bronze.

“It was my own mistake at 2.25m and its cost me a medal. It’s a pretty upsetting and frustrating place to be but Olympic fourth is still something to be pretty damn proud of. “I’m really happy and I’m really proud of it. Being that close to a medal, whilst it is really frustrating, if someone said even six weeks ago that you’re going to come fourth I’d have been really chuffed. But in the heat of the moment when it is that close you are absolutely gutted.”

Laura Muir (Andy Young) put everything on the line in her pursuit of an Olympic medal, but in the end fell short as she tied up with 150m to go in a typically tactical 1500m final. Going through 800m in a pedestrian 2.27, pre-race favourite Genzebe Dibaba took up the running in earnest throwing in a 56 second lap. At 1200m Dibaba led with eventual winner Faith Kipyegon and Laura Muir hot on her heels, but in the end Muir finished seventh in 4.12.88.

“I went for it – it’s not every day you find yourself in an Olympic final. I know I’m in great shape, it’s just that last 150m wasn’t quite in me and the girls were just better on the day. This is my first Olympics and I gave it all I could, but it just wasn’t enough on the day, but I’m really proud of how I ran.”

Laura Weightman (Steve Cram) left everything on the track to make it through to her second Olympic final and she battled hard all the way to finish 11th in 4.14.95. “That was completely different experience - I scrapped to get into the final and I thought I’d done well to get there, but I’m a little bit disappointed with that final today. I thought I should have been and could have been a little bit more competitive but I couldn’t go with the pace when it happened.

“I think we have made huge steps forward. The final today was much better than in London but at the time of London, I was only 21 and I didn’t really know what was going on.  My eyes have been opened a lot more in the last few years but I really believe that I have come a long way since then. That was a much better final.”

Despite missing out on a top two spot in her semi-final on the line, Eilidh Doyle (Malcolm Arnold) advanced to the 400mH final on Thursday evening courtesy of her 54.99 time.

Running a clean race, Doyle looked to be amongst the top two, however a fast finishing Ashley Spencer pushed her down into third place on the line.

“Obviously I would have liked to have got the automatic qualification but I’m actually really happy with how the race went – it was smooth and there were no errors like yesterday, so I felt like I gave it everything. It’s wide open this year, so although there isn’t anyone out there dominating there are a lot of us very close together.”