Hicham El Guerrouj, vrrroooom! When the Moroccan world-record holder hit the front it was race over in heat one of the Olympic 1,500 metres. But holding form in his slipstream and finishing eighth was James Nolan, who just a short time later learnt that was enough to secure his place in tomorrow's semi-final.

Nolan's time of three minutes, 41.14 seconds made him the last of the nine fastest losers to qualify, but in the fevers of Olympic competition you take what you get.

Several of the more fancied names bowed out, including the new American prodigy Alan Webb - the fastest man not to qualify - and the French number one Mehdi Baala.

With only the top five in each of the three heats automatically progressing, Nolan endured the usual exercises in nail biting. Heat two and three went by with only three fastest losers quicker than him. He was in.

"I thought tactically I ran well," said the Offaly athlete. "I was on the shoulder of El Guerrouj when he made the move, where you want to be. And I knew that 3:41 after snailing around for the first two laps was not a bad time.

"When the kick did come I felt this knot in my hamstring, and wasn't quite able to go with it. But still I was pleased with the way I ran on the night."

For El Guerrouj, who hit the front at 800 metres and finished in 3:37.86, it all looked so easy.

Nolan though can't yet be ruled out of a place in the final. Heat two was won in 3:39.71 by Spain's Reyes Estevez, just ahead of the big Kenyan hope Bernard Lagat, who had to flick off his shoe on the home stretch after earlier catching Webb's foot.

Britain's Michael East coolly took the third heat in 3:37.37. Tactics though can sometimes play a greater part in the semi-finals and Nolan won't be labouring under undue expectation.

Earlier in the day, Robert Heffernan had a much rougher ride in the 20km walk - disqualified for a third technical foul beyond the halfway point. There was no hiding his dejection afterwards. It seems the Irish walkers were cursed before coming to Athens.

"I'm disgusted with that, just really angry," said the Cork athlete. "Gutted that I didn't get the most out of myself. Not getting to the finish is a real disappointment. I was in such great shape. Technically I'd no problems at all."

Heffernan had started cautiously, partly on the advice of his Polish coach, Robert Korzeniowski - the double Olympic champion. But his first warning came early. He didn't get to hear about second, and instead saw the red card that ended his race at 11 km. He had just moved into 17th position. Only four of the 48 starters suffered a similar fate.

Later the Irish walks coach Michael Lane pointed to a problem with the system indicating the athletes' warnings: "For a while the whole system broke down, so we'd no information of what the situation was. When you get the first warning, you have to decide to make an adjustment or not. I think he could have made that adjustment had he known. Unfortunately that's just one of the difficulties of our sport."

No such problems for Italy's Ivano Brugnetti, who pressed the pace from the beginning, winning in 1:19.40. That he was over two minutes outside the world record was no surprise considering the morning heat.

Jefferson Perez of Ecuador, the strong favourite and record holder, finished third.