Nuttall: I knew I need to run it like a final, so that's what I did

The Charnwood long-distance runner is competing at her first World Championships and reached the 5000m final with an assured performance early in Thursday’s evening session.

She finished seventh in her heat in a time of 14 minutes 48.09 seconds, with the top eight all reaching Saturday’s medal race.

Nuttall qualified for Tokyo by running a personal best at the London Diamond League meet in July and is adamant she is in the form of her life.

“I’m really happy. I mean, I had to pretty much run that like that was a final, as hard as I could, and that's what I did,” the 28-year-old said.

Nuttall, who retained her Novuna UK Championships title last month, decided to stay with a breakaway pack midway through the race.

Normally the weakest past of her race, she dug deep and stuck with the leaders through to the end, when the pace quickened.

The heat was won by Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, who won 10,000m gold, while 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon is aiming for a double of her own.

Nuttall is a long shot for a medal but she says making after it such a gruelling race is a great achievement.

“I had to really dig deep to get on that front group and I was really happy when I managed to do that,” the Loughborough College alumnus explained.

“The middle of the race is normally when I struggle.

“So to get to the last section and still be on the pack, I was pretty confident at that point, but just had to keep pushing to the end.

“When I get to the end of the race, normally, I'm pretty strong. It's just getting there for me.

“When the pack started to separate I was struggling a little bit at that point, and the pace was still feeling a little bit hot, but I knew I had no choice.

“And I was thinking ‘you've got to get on it, and if you die, you die, but you're going to die trying’. So that was the goal.”

Follow all the action from the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 on BBC.