Bingley athlete clocks a championship best performance in the 200m heats, while Lucy Bull's javelin qualifying effort makes her the fifth British thrower into the finals as GB & NI enjoyed another successful morning on day two.

A day after Joe Scanes delivered the first gold of the championships, Great Britain and Northern Ireland kept the momentum going on the second morning in Rieti, with seven of the team's eight track competitors safely through to the next round of their events — headlined by a superb run from Ethan Heggarty in the 200m.

Now brought forward to an earlier start to keep athletes out of the worst of the heat, which has continued to sit in the mid-30s through the opening days of competition, the morning session belonged to Heggarty inside the first hour. The Bingley Harrier, who is coached by Demetric Nelson, strolled through his 200m heat in a championship best performance of 20.77 — a time that not only eased him into the next round but did so with plenty in hand.

Heggarty's heat win set the tone for a strong effort from the Brits, with seven of the eight athletes in action across the morning's rounds progressing through to Friday's later stages and ahead of six finals scheduled for the evening session.

Britain's medal prospects in the field were also boosted, with Lucy Bull producing the throw of the morning in the women's javelin qualification. The Cheltenham & County Harrier, coached by Carolyn Franks, sent the spear out to 54.98m to become the fifth British thrower to reach a final at these championships inside the opening 24 hours.

Bull's throw follows her championship best at the English Schools Championships last weekend. It also moves her to second on the British all-time U18 javelin rankings, behind only Emma Hamplett.

Between them, Heggarty and Bull gave Friday morning a distinctly British flavour at a Stadio Raul Guidobaldi that continues to fill out nicely for the home crowd, with Italy's own athletes again productive across the jumps as the women's high jump, triple jump and long jump qualification rounds ran in parallel through the session.

Attention now turns to Friday evening, when the first individual sprint finals of the championships are due to be decided. Both Divine Iheme and Celine Obinna-Alo, having safely negotiated their opening heats on Thursday, will be in action again, while Sophie Robertson returns for the hammer final having banked her spot in style 24 hours earlier with a 64.51m PB.