Jamaica’s pair of Natoya Goule-Toppin and Adelle Tracey both safely progressed to the women’s 800 metres semi-finals, as they had little problems navigating their respective heats on day five of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday.

Goule-Toppin, who entered the championships ranked second in the world, contested the last of the seven heats, where she bided her time in the early stages, before challenging and pushing America’s reigning World Champion Athing Mu in the homestretch.

In the end, Goule-Toppin finished second in 1:59.64, behind Mu, who stopped the clock in 1:59.59. Switzerland’s Lore Hoffman clocked a season’s best 2:00.14 to secure the third automatic qualifying spot.

Though she ran a national record of 3:58.77 in the 1,500m semi-finals, where she shaved 3.07 seconds off the previous mark set by Yvonne Graham in Monaco in 1995, Tracey was more at home in the two-lap event, and she performed accordingly to book her spot in the next round.

The 30-year-old occupied the inside lane for most of the way before finding space in between competitors in the home stretch to close fast for second in heat four.

She stopped the clock in a season’s best 1:59.92, behind Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi (1:59.68), with French athlete, Renelle Lamote (2:00.22, taking the third automatic qualifying spot from the heat.

Meanwhile, Cuba’s Rose Mary Almanza, who contested heat six, placed sixth in 2:01.33 and failed to progress.

The semi-finals are scheduled for Friday.

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