World Athletics Championships: Ben Pattison claims 800m bronze, GB men and women through to 4x400m relay finals

Ben Pattison won bronze in the men’s 800m at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Saturday night, after Great Britain’s men and women reached their 4x400m finals.

Pattison was on the front early in the race, and second after what was a relatively slow opening lap.

Emmanuel Wanyonyi moved up towards him, before Canada’s Marco Arop stretched his legs to pull away to claim gold.

Kenya’s Wanyonyi was able to secure silver, and with four runners scrabbling for fourth, it left Pattison waiting on the screen for confirmation that he took the final podium place.

Great Britain won their heat in their Women’s 4x400m relay earlier on Saturday.

Going into the heat to decide some of the line-up in Sunday’s final, the USA team were the favourites to make it through, and to finish first in the heat.

The USA have won seven of the last eight gold medals on offer at the Worlds but will now have to wait until the next event to attempt to make it eight medals after being disqualified for an illegal change.

The British side were in second place behind the US line-up, with those two teams clear of the chasing pack, with the current bronze medallists then able to take the lead.

However, there was a controversy as Alexis Holmes took the baton too late in an exchange, and despite coming second they were disqualified.

Laviai Nielsen, Amber Anning, Nicole Yeargin and Yemi Mary John will now hope to land a gold medal for Great Britain in Sunday’s finale.

Lewis Davey, Rio Mitcham, Alex Haydock-Wilson and Martyn Rooney were in fourth at the halfway point for Great Britain in their men’s 4x400m relay heat, and needed a top-three finish to ensure automatic qualification.

Haydock-Wilson went head-to-head with Botswana and pipped his rival to claim third, with India in second and USA winning the heat.

Mitcham said: “We really mean business. We really want to get the job done. Just focus on this, focus on getting through to the final and that’s what we’ve done so I’m happy.”

Haydock-Wilson added: “I resolved within myself in that cool-room to trust these guys and they really did make my job easy for me. I can trust that they would give their all and if I’m trusting them, then I can trust myself too.