British track star Keely Hodgkinson is through to the semi-finals of the women's 800 metres at the World Championships, but still had some gripes to share with tournament officials despite cruising through the heats in Tokyo.
The 23-year-old - who is the reigning Olympic champion in the event - is hoping to spearhead a late charge up the medal table for Great Britain on the final weekend of action in Japan. The British team have won just one medal at the championships so far, with Jake Wightman finishing second in the men's 1500m.
With the competition wrapping up on Sunday, Hodgkinson has been tipped to add a world title to the gold medal she won in Paris last year, and she got off to a fine start as she eased through the heats on Thursday. After leading from the front, she crossed the line to win her heat in a relatively slow 1min 59.79sec, more than five seconds off her British record.
She was later joined by her training partner and roommate Georgia Hunter Bell, who also won her race in the marginally quicker time of 1min 58.82sec. The pair are targeting a British one-two in the event, but have had to wait a while to get out on the track, with Hodgkinson landing in Japan over two weeks ago for a prep camp in Miyazaki before heading to Tokyo.
While she looked composed and comfortable in the race, the Atherton-born athlete confessed to having suffered extreme boredom in the build-up to the first heat. While she was excited to finally get out on the track, however, she admitted to finding the heats "awful", despite crossing the line in first place.
"Honestly, we know I don't like the rounds," she said as she spoke to the BBC following her heat victory. "They feel awful, they are awful. But I just really wanted to enjoy being back in the stadium.
"I was looking at it on the way out thinking 'this is so nice'. It's so nice to be here and just experience that. It wasn't pretty or anything, wasn't dominant, just nice and safely through.
"It was just get the job done. I don't like the heat, it can feel worse winning 1.59 than it does winning 1.55. I am just happy I'm through."
On the wait she had experienced in the build-up to the race, Hodgkinson admitted: "I have been losing my mind. I've been so bored just waiting for it to come around. I was really excited to get out there tonight and it's our turn to have some fun and get on the stage.
"It's been a long week just waiting around. Whoever put the 800m last, thank you," she added, sarcastically. "But I was really looking forward to getting out here, at one point I didn't even know if I'd be here. So, it definitely means a lot.
"Round by round, I'm really hoping it goes my way. It would just mean even more than last year honestly, so I'm just trying to embrace it all and enjoy every step."
After winning Olympic gold in Paris last year, Hodgkinson suffered a hamstring tear in February, with a subsequent minor setback leading her to withdraw from Diamond League meetings in Stockholm and London. However, she returned to the track in Silesia last month, racing for the first time in 376 days and recording the ninth-fastest time in history, before backing it up in Lausanne four days later.
"I was so focused on just making a start line the whole year that once I'd finally done it, I was exhausted after Silesia," she told the Guardian. "Mentally, physically, emotionally. So I was so happy with how Lausanne went, considering the weather and everything that we had been through, to back it up with a 1.55."
"My body's in a good place at the moment. I am a bit heavier. In the gym, I've put on a couple of kilograms since Paris last year. But funnily enough, it hasn't slowed me down. I think it's made me more powerful."