Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson took the first step towards retaining her 800m title at the European Athletics Indoor Championships by winning her heat on day one.
The 2021 champion - who turns 21 tomorrow - clocked a time of 2:01.67 to advance to Saturday's semi-finals, over four seconds slower than her British record of 1:57.18, which she set at the World Indoor Tour final in Birmingham last week.
"I'm happy to qualify and not with a messy race, just clean through. Sometimes running at that [slower] pace is actually harder than running what you're used to, so I'm actually quite tired!" Hodgkinson told BBC Sport.
"It will be a nice birthday present to myself if I can defend my title. I'm looking forward to it and hopefully I can do everyone proud."
Hodgkinson will be joined in the semi-finals by compatriot Isabelle Boffey, who finished first in her heat with 2:03.24 - two hundredths of a second quicker than Hungary's Bianka Keri.
Guy Learmonth also advanced to the men's 800m semi-finals with a heat time of 1:47.51, while Morgan Lake qualified for the women's high jump final in eighth place with 1.91 on the board.
Melissa Courtney-Bryant and Hannah Nuttall also booked their spots in the women's 3000m final, while George Mills - who beat Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in his heat - and Neil Gourley reached the men's 1500m final.
Ben Knapton
