Adam Gemili made his first Rio appearance on Tuesday afternoon and cruised into the semi-finals of the Olympic 200m event after a convincing display.

The 22-year-old former Dartford schoolboy made light of being drawn in lane two as he ran a blistering bend in his heat to cruise through along Jamaican star Nickel Ashmeade, whom he pipped to a silver medal in the 100m at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games two years ago.

The Blackheath & Bromley AC ace - the TeamGB Athletics captain - has only run faster than his time of 20.20secs four times previously and only once in the past two years.

It guaranteed Gemili - the European Champion over 200m in 2014 - a spot in the semi-finals of the event which are due to begin at 2am on Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

He said: "It was alright – just to get the jitters out of the first one. it was a hard lane as well – a tough lane to run from but it was good.

“It was great to get out there and feel the track and experience the crowd. Now it feels like the Olympics because I’m actually competing now so it’s cool.

“I’m happy with it, I obviously wanted to win, that said lane two is a tough lane to run from so I just tried to take it as chilled as I can. I had a little glance over and saw Ashmeade was at same level as me so I knew that we’d qualified well."

He revealed: "I’ve been waiting in the village for a while so it’s good to finally get out there and compete myself. As captain, I’m not doing anything differently I’m just being me – that why Neil Black, Team GB Team Leader chose me.

“I’m just trying to support the team as I normally do and try and bring positive energy to everyone and I think I am doing that, the team’s doing really well and I like to think I have a part to play in that.”

This evening Ashford sailor Sophie Ainsworth and Charlotte Dobson will seek to improve on their fifth-place ranking in the 49er FX class in the final three races of the regular competition.

After finishes of 2nd, 5th and 9th on Monday evening, the duo face races 10, 11 and 12 of the competition at 5.05pm, 6.05pm and 7.05pm BST.

After Monday's action, Ainsworth said: "We’ve given ourselves the opportunity to go and attack tomorrow. We’ve had no howlers so we’re looking forward to the rest of the racing.

“There was reasonable wind out there. There was just a big swirl for us so there was a lot of technique needed. We weren’t going that fast so Charlotte did an amazing job of getting us in a good position

“Tomorrow it’s just a case of executing the skills we know we have, getting clean off the start line, racing as well as we know we can and seeing where we end up at the end of the day.”

Jack Green is set for his second Olympic semi-final in the 400mH when he takes to the track at 1.35am on Tuesday night, in lane four of a race which includes American star Kerron Clement.

Dina Asher-Smith is also set for semi-final action as the women's 200m reaches the penultimate stage just after 2am.

Susannah Townsend and the GB women's hockey team are two wins from gold after a convincing quarter-final success against Spain in Rio late on Monday night.

Goals from Georgie Twigg, Helen Richardson-Walsh and Lily Owsley put the GB girls in complete control and though the Spaniards rallied in the second half and pulled one goal back, it was Canterbury star Townsend and the Holcombe contingent of Maddie Hinch, Shona McCallin, Nic White and Sam Quek who progressed to a semi-final against New Zealand on Wednesday night (9pm BST) with the winner guaranteed at least a silver medal.

It was a sixth win from six in Rio for the side, coached by former Canterbury HC coach Danny Kerry, who said: "It’s the quarter-finals of an Olympic Games, it’s a do or die match against a side who have a lot of variation in how they get the ball out at the back.

“The reality is in the first half we absolutely creamed them and then the second half it gets a bit wobbly. That’s high performance sport and it’s just whether you find a way through that.

“As much as I’d love to play an entire game the way we did in the first half the reality is sport doesn’t work like that and you have to find a way.

“I’m very proud. Our defence was strong when it needed to be and we were just superb in the first half.

“New Zealand are a very fast side. They’ve got a lot of pace and a lot of good goal scorers and it will be a hell of a game.”