Ciara Mageean is safely through to the semi-finals of the 1500m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha.
With six going through automatically from each of the three heats, the 27-year-old finished fifth in the first heat which was won by 10,000m gold medallist (the Alberto Salazar-trained) Sifan Hassan.
Mageean was well-placed throughout but had to fight her way past Ethiopia's Lemlem Hailu and Australia's Georgia Griffith on the final bend as she looked to be one of those automatic qualifiers.
It was that to which the Down athlete referred in her post-race interview with RTÉ when she said that she had not been in the mood to "take any rubbish".
"There's nothing to be left to chance out there because it's a championship race and even the girls that you think that are slower than you can outperform the better ones," said Mageean.
I thought, 'Get myself in a good competitive position, don't take any rubbish from anybody, hold my ground and then finish strong'. That's what I did.
This has been the best season of my life. I get very nervous, anybody who knows me knows that. I keep reminding myself when I'm toeing that line that it's an absolute privilege to be out here running in this vest. I never take that for granted.
I just know that if I put my best out there, I have every chance of making that final. I'm going to throw everything and the kitchen sink at it.
The 1500m semi-finals will be run at 9pm Irish time on Thursday evening. In the stands, Mageean will have plenty of support.
"I got a lovely message from a girl I used to go to secondary school with - hey everybody from Assumption!" she said.
"She told me her brother's studying out here and if I see a rake of Down jerseys, they're all there for me.
"I wouldn't assume they're there for anybody else, to be honest. I don't think there's too many Down people out here."
"I'm feeling good. There is nothing to be left to chance out there. Don't take any rubbish and hold your ground." @ciaramageean is safely through to the 1,500m semi-final and gives herself a big chance of making the final. pic.twitter.com/ErN36cP1Lc
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) October 2, 2019
