Gregan of Clonliffe Harriers was convincing in securing his spot in tomorrow’s 400m final, taking second place in his semi in an impressive 45.76 seconds, behind Czech Pavel Maslak. Third place would have meant waiting to go through as a fastest loser.

With one of his fastest ever performances, Gregan put in the third fastest run of the semi-finals, to put himself in with a good chance and a middle lane draw in Friday’s final (7:25pm Irish time).

Gregan said: “I finished second, and was comfortable. I felt a little more tired than yesterday as conditions were that little bit more testing.

“I really showing my strength in the last 100m, and almost won it.

“I’m delighted with the time as it got my into the final. I think I would have got through if I had finished third in my race, but why not make sure with second.

“I wasn’t expecting to reach the final but did, so it’s good to be exceeding expectations.”

Jessie Barr of Ferrybank had started the morning superbly, her fourth place in the women’s 400m hurdles semi-finals secured with a personal best time of 55.93 seconds.

Ukrainian Anna Yaroshchuk took the honours, but Barr was satisfied to progress as a fastest loser.

Barr’s final is at 6pm Irish time on Friday, and she has an outside lane draw in lane 2.

Though the Barr siblings had another excellent day, with their continuing high finishes urging the other on, younger brother Thomas bowed out of the men’s 400 hurdles semis, with a fifth-place finish in a season’s best 50.22 seconds. He needed to be half a second faster to qualify – well inside his personal best.

Stephanie Reilly of Sli Chulainn in Wicklow was impressive too in her qualification for Saturday’s final of the women’s 3000m steeplechase.

Reilly was always comfortable in claiming sixth place in her semi-final, with a season’s best of 9 minutes, 44.15 seconds – twelve seconds after heat winner Gülcan Mingir from Turkey.

Her decider is on the Helsinki track Saturday, and she says she’s feeling good: “I’m delighted to make the final, it’s brilliant.

“My intention was always to try and make the final, but to do that I had to go and run my own race to my strength, my own ability and capability. This got me to the final, so it’s great.”

The other Irish performance of the day almost saw another finalist, as naturalised Californian Tori Pena of Finn Valley came one height away from qualifying for the pole vault final.

Pena had cleared 4.35m, but three failures at the final qualifying height of 4.40m prevented her from going through.

France stole the show on the second night, as reigning 100m champion Christophe Lemaitre overhauled compatriot Jimmy Vicaut on the line to retain his title won in Barcelona two years ago.

Fellow French athlete Eloyse Leseuer won the women’s long jump with seven centimetres to spare over Belarussian Volha Sudarava.

Ruth Beitia finally came good with a major women’s high jump title, edging out Norwegian Tonje Angelsen on countback after both cleared 1.97 metres.

There were narrow victories from behind for Bulgarian Ivet Lalova in the women’s 100m and Olga Golovkina of Russia in the women’s 5000m, as favourite Sara Moreira of Portugal crumbled from first to third in the final ten metres.

Germany’s Pascal Behrenbruch won the decathlon, while the men’s javelin was won at a canter by new Czech star Vítezslav Vesely.

Friday’s Irish athletes –

10:30 200m M R1 Steven Colvert, Paul Hession

18:00 400 hurds W Final Jessie Barr

18:25 200m M SF Steven Colvert, Paul Hession

19:25 400m M Final Brian Gregan