Mark Carroll is through to Saturday's final of the world 5,000 metres championship after qualifying as one of the five fastest losers in a curiously uneven run in the second of the semi-finals last evening.

Of those who got through, only American Bob Kennedy was slower than Carroll's time of 13 minutes 34.98 seconds. And for those of the Irish supporters left in the stadium at the end of a marathon programme, that was too close for comfort.

The race was won by Mohammed Mourhit, a naturalised Belgian of Moroccan extraction, in 13.28.96 which as it turned out was considerably brisker than Brahim Lahlafi's figures of 13.34.26 in the first semi-final. That proved decisive for four of the five fastest losers came from this race.

Early on, Carroll looked quite composed in the difficult conditions, alternating between first and third places over the first kilometre. But he was trapped on the kerb when Kenya's Daniel Koeman accelerated on the fifth lap, and from that point he was always struggling to get back into contention.

With only five certain of going through, it was apparent that he was in some trouble at that stage, and his plight worsened when he was hit from behind by Frenchman Halez Taguelmint at the start of the second last lap.

That cost him precious metres, and it wasn't until the bell that his courage was rewarded and he finally acquired the momentum to go after the leaders. At that point, they were gone beyond the point of recall, but thanks to that late surge the European 5,000 metres bronze medallist finally squeezed into the final.

"It was a very difficult race out there and it didn't help that I was feeling a bit rusty," he said. "It was one of those stop-start affairs which never developed any real pattern.

"Hopefully, there will be a more consistent pace in the final and the quicker the better. The incident with the Frenchman set me back a bit, but luckily there was enough time left for me to get out of trouble."

With James McIlroy newly departed to Britain, Irish interest in today's preliminaries of the 800 metres will be trained on the two UCD club-mates, James Nolan and David Matthews.

Ironically, neither fulfilled his mid season objective of winning the national title: Nolan was forced out of the final through injury and Matthews failed to cover Gareth Turnbull's decisive charge at the halfway point in the race.

Yet, both are confident of reasonably good runs now. In Nolan's case that derives from a fine performance in finishing second in the European Under-23 championship in Riga and, before that, career best figures of 1.46.05 in the Helsinki Grand Prix in which he finished just ahead of McIlroy.

For Matthews, the national record holder at 1.44.62, the hope is that he can rediscover the verve which enabled him to make his best start to a season in years. Since then, some old frailties have begun to recur, but at his best he is capable of surviving to the semi-finals.

Today, he is drawn in the last of eight heats in which the first two, plus the eight fastest losers overall, progress to the semi-finals. Recent form suggests the Cuban, Norberto Tellez (1.44.05) and Morocco's Mahioub Haida (1.44.64) are the athletes all others have to beat in this race, with Matthews set the task of making up a two seconds discrepancy on 1999 form.

The quality of Nolan's company in heat three is equally imposing with Italy's Andrea Longo (1.43.93) and the Algerian, Adem Hecini (1.44.94), favoured to fill the first two places.

Also in action today will be Ciaran McDonagh, the 23-year-old long jumper from Athboy, Co Meath, who, after a trying season with injuries and a belated call-up by the selectors, makes his first major championship appearance.

At his best, McDonagh is capable of becoming the first Irishman to clear eight metres, an assessment based on his performance in the national championships in which a clearance of 8.04 metres was invalidated by a following wind that was only fractionally beyond the permitted limit.

That fitted the pattern of a career which has held more than its fair share of misfortune. But, undaunted, he came back to eliminate doubts about his fitness with career best figures of 7.95 metres at a meeting in Taillinn.