“I’m not going to medal, I’m not going to be anywhere near the medals but to make that actual final is beyond anything I could’ve dreamed of.
“It is literally like a dream come true. If someone said to me at the start of the year I would make the Olympic 5k final, I would’ve thought they were insane.
“I needed this today. I just wanted it so badly. It’s been such a long time coming.
“To be in that final, that was the aim. It was an outside aim. To automatically qualify and not have to stress out – couldn’t be happier.”
McColgan’s mother, Liz, won Olympic silver in Seoul 28 years ago and Eilish added: “It’s actually been quite a challenge for myself and my mum because it’s totally different to how she coached herself, how she coaches other athletes because of the problems that I had.
