Laura Muir will contest a second final at the World Championships and she will be accompanied this time by not only a fellow Scot but a Dundee Hawkhill Harriers clubmate after she and Eilish McColgan both came through their semi-finals in the 5000 metres, albeit in very different fashion.

Drawn in what looked the tougher of the two semis and also disadvantaged by it being the first of them which meant she did not know what time would be needed by those not among the first five who would qualify automatically for the final, Muir admitted it was something of a race into the unknown compared with her previous involvement in her established specialist distance when she was just edged out of the medals in the 1500 metres on Monday night.

Having run just one previous outdoor 5000 metres race, all of four years ago in a very moderate time and had just one race over the distance this year indoors in January, she positioned herself just behind the leaders most of the way around, but after being part of a five woman break at the bell she tied up towards the end and ultimately slipped back to seventh spot, finishing in 14 minutes, 59.34 secs, a time that was ultimately more than good enough.

“That was a long way for me,” she admitted afterwards.

“I ran as hard as I could and that was really fast. We’d been looking at the times in the heats from previous championships and that was the fastest ever, that I know of anyway.

“I took a day to think about the 1500m then after than I put it behind me and focused on this and mentally I was very positive going in to this race and I will be hopefully going in to the final.

“It felt fine to be honest, apart from that last lap. I have another two or three days until the final so I should be recovered. I felt good out there apart from that last lap when the legs just went.”

While she looked to have little left to give as she starfished on the track after the race, she expressed confidence that she could recover sufficiently to be competitive come Sunday’s final.

“I know I’m better than what I ran out there today and hopefully I can show it in the final,” she said.

McColgan, a finalist in this event in Rio last year,

In a second semi-final that did not look quite as stacked, albeit still full of quality, only American Molly Huddle seemed to decide that the best way of ensuring a place in the final was to target the times set in the previous race and she put in what amounted to a solo effort until the final lap when, as one observer rightly pointed out, like a Tour de France cyclist, she was swallowed up by the peloton on the final bend.

Huddle was rewarded for her courage by claiming a fastest loser’s spot, but the group that swept past her contained six runners who included McColgan and she timed her effort perfectly in something of a blanket finish to claim fourth spot, a personal best of 15:00.38 saving her any sort of anxiety in terms of checking times as she finished in fourth spot.

“I’m so shocked with that time, it was so slow at the start,” said the daughter of 1991 chamnpion Liz, still Scotland’s only individual medallist at a World Championships..

“We are not allowed to see the previous race so we were jumping over trying to see the time anytime the door opened and we knew it was quick, the fastest losers’ spots were crazy.

“For me usually 15 minutes has my eyeballs out from the start, so to jog and really only pick up the last six – I’m over the moon with that, I’m really, really happy.

“To be honest after the first lap I thought ignore times because we are too slow, and that’s why I hit the front.

“I felt like I wanted to push the pace a little bit to at least string it out because my Mum said don’t have it to a 200m mad sprint - and that’s exactly what ended up happening.”“To run that time I’m really pleased, I couldn’t have asked for any more to be honest – automatic qualification and a new pb.”

McColgan’s performance was a measure of the improvement she has made in the last five weeks since another fellow Scot Steph Twell sprinted away from her to take the British title in a time of 15:35.5 in Birmingham last month.

Twell was in the same semi-final last night and, with no incentive to produce a similar finish, put in an otherwise similar sort of performance, finishing 15th of the 16 starters in 15:41.29.