ANDREW Pozzi overcame a monsoon at the Rio Olympic stadium to book his place in the semi-finals of the 110 metre hurdles last night.

The former Alcester school boy was qualified second in 13.50 seconds but it wasn’t all plain sailing though as running from the outside lane he clipped hurdle eight and clattered the hurdle, but thankfully he and winner Dimtri Bascou were far enough in front that it didn’t affect the result.

Two heats had been run in the monsoon-like conditions and six athletes who had not qualified for the semi-finals were allowed to run again.

He said: “I managed to qualify in second so its job done, but it was a messy race at the end.

"I felt pretty good until then and felt I was in contention, and then I just made stupid little mistakes, which you can’t afford to make at the Olympic Games.

"Thankfully, I kind of lived to tell the tale, but it is not something I will be repeating tomorrow.

"The eighth hurdle I clipped a little bit and then ploughed into the ninth hard; I then recovered a bit and drove as hard as I could to the line to make sure that I qualified.”

His progress came as a relief for the athlete, who suffered injury in the heats at the London Games and could not compete.

Pozzi's GB team mate Lawrence Clarke, who finished fourth in the final four years ago, also reached the next stage.

Both athletesare set to race again at 12.40am in the early hours of tomorrow morning.