Andrew Osagie had no idea he had just made history as the first British man to reach the final of an Olympic 800 metres in 20 years. In fact, he had no idea he was going to run that fast.
The young man who had tweeted at the start of this competition: “Don’t embarrass yourself on tv”, had no need for a red face. He ran a storming race to finish second in his heat to qualify automatically for the final in the Olympic Stadium tomorrow.
Given the paucity of British middle-distance talent — there was no British runner in the 1,500 metres final last night — Osagie’s qualification was a new cause for hanging out the bunting and getting the crowd to their feet,