Beith’s Jemma Reekie finished fourth in the women’s 800m final at the Tokyo Olympics and secured a personal best (PB) as well.

The Scot lined up in the final yesterday after qualifying first in her heat, in the second-fastest time of those to qualify.

Those in Reekie’s heat knew what the mark was, given they were in the final race of qualifying, and they went out hard.

Reekie kept it simple by sitting close to the pace and taking over down the back straight on the final lap.

The British runner was challenged by Sara Kuivisto with 200m to run, only to see off the Finn.

The final challenge came from Ajee Wilson but Reekie had enough in reserve to take first place and a spot in the semi-finals.

She then came second in her semi-final, finishing a stride behind Jamaican Natoya Goule whose winning time was 1min 59.57sec while Reekie clocked 1:59.77.

It was an impressive performance from Reekie who tucked in behind Goule early on, with the pair pulling clear of the rest of the field on the final bend.

Reekie’s semi-showing got her a spot in the final going through with the top two from each of the three semi-finals to qualify along with the two fastest losers.

In the final yesterday, she was up against fellow Brits Keely Hodgkinson and Alexandra Bell all keen to get onto the podium and into the history books.

Reekie ran a new PB of 1:56.90 and looked good for the podium until the last few metres as American Raevyn Rogers came through to finish in 1:56.81.

Athing Mu took gold for the USA and there was a silver medal and new British Record for Keely Hodgkinson in 1:55.88.

Despite such an incredible achievement Reekie was critical of her performance but says she will aim to come back even stronger from her near medalling moment.

She said: “I definitely wanted a lot better than that.

“The time was good but I know that I’m in even better shape than that, and it’s just frustrating when you don’t perform on the big stage because I’ve been flying in training and everything else, but I’ll learn from it and come back stronger.

“I didn’t quite get out as fast as I wanted to and into the position, I wanted to, but that’s 800m racing, it’s always going to be really tough, and the girls have done so well out there today.

“You can’t complain if you’re fourth in the Olympics, but you can because you’re just outside those medals.

“I’m not going to be that happy about it, but there’s nothing I can do about it now and I can’t reverse time, I can just progress and get better for next year.”