Laura Muir and Eilish McColgan secure spots in Sunday's World Championships 5,000 metres final

The British pair will both feature in the 5,000m final

Muir is one of Britain's greatest medal hopes (Getty)

Laura Muir and Eilish McColgan qualified for Sunday's World Championships 5,000 metres final on Thursday.

Sir Mo Farah's 10,000m gold last Friday was hosts Great Britain's only medal in the first six days of competition and his quest for a golden double continues in Saturday's 5,000m final.

The heats of the corresponding women's event opened proceedings on Thursday's seventh day of competition at the London Stadium.

British record holder Muir, who finished fourth in the 1,500m on Monday, was in the first heat and had to come in the top five to be sure to advance.

Muir was overtaken by two athletes in the final 100m as she clocked 14 minutes 59.34 seconds to place seventh in her heat, which was won by Hellen Obiri of Kenya in 14mins 56.70secs.

Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana, the world and Olympic 10,000m champion, was second in 14:57.06.

Muir had to wait until the second heat concluded to learn if she would progress. She did so and was joined in the final by another Scot.

McColgan also made it into the 5,000m metres final (Getty)

McColgan finished fourth behind Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia in the second heat, which was won in 14:59.34. McColgan clocked a personal best of 15:00.38 and compatriot Steph Twell finished 15th in 15:41.29.

Muir said: "That was long. I ran as hard as I could. That was fast. I've been looking at the times of heats from previous championships and that's the fastest ever, well, that I know of anyway.

"I felt good out there apart from that last lap.

"I know I'm better than I ran today and hopefully I can show it in the final."