Kent athletes Jack Green and Dina Asher-Smith progressed on the track while Sophie Ainsworth and Susannah Townsend in action later.

Hythe hurdler Jack Green bulldozed his way into the semi-finals of the 400mH competition on Monday afternoon with an incredible late burst to secure second spot in his heat in a photo finish.

Running in lane seven in the fifth heat of the first round, the Maidstone-born star looked out of it on the final bend with six runners ahead of him, only to drag himself back into contention with a lung-busting burst to pip American Byron Robinson on the line to claim second spot in a season's best time of 48.96secs.

Green said: "I am little disappointed with my performance in terms of the execution, I got the stride pattern but I was thinking about it too much and I didn’t actually run and flow.

“If you know hurdles you could see that I was thinking about it and not letting myself run. So to run my second fastest time ever not really running to the last 100m is nice.

“If I commit and have the confidence I should have from training and from previous races and take it into the semi-final we will see what happens.”

The 24-year-old crashed out in the semi-finals of London 2012 but will continue his quest for the 400mH final at 1.35am on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Dina Asher-Smith cruised through the opening round of the women's 200m on Monday afternoon to book her place in the semi-finals in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The 19-year-old - who claimed gold at the European Championships in Amsterdam last month having taken the British title in June - breezed through her heat in a time of 22.77secs.

With the top-two only guaranteed to progress, the Orpington ace led from lane 7 until the final few metres when she was pipped to the line by Nigerian Blessing Okagbare who claimed gold in the event at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Asher-Smith claimed: "It was good; I was really happy. Obviously when I came off the bend I wanted to get out strong and put myself in a good position and then conserve my energy for the next round and I’ve done that.

“I did a warm up yesterday and I’ve been training quite well, I was just conserving energy – running smart. I don’t focus on the track – I just run the best wherever I am."

The semi-finals are scheduled for 2am BST on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

On Monday evening Ashford sailor Sophie Ainsworth and partner Charlotte Dobson improved to fifth in the 49er FX class with three races and the medal race to come this week.

Susannah Townsend and the Holcombe contingent of Maddie Hinch, Shona McCallin, Sam Quek and Nic White continued their perfect campaign with a 3-1 win over Spain in the quarter-final late on Monday night.

They qualified for the knockout stages by winning all five games in the pool stage - the only side to do so - and will now face New Zealand for a place in the gold medal match on Wednesday night (9pm BST).

Bryony Shaw had to settle for ninth place in the RS:X windsurfing competition after Sunday’s medal race - the fifth day of the competition in Rio.

The 33-year-old World No1, based in Tunbridge Wells, recorded finishes of 7th, 20th and 9th on the opening day and 7th, 15th and 12th the following day, though she followed the rest day with more impressive 3rd, 5th and 2nd places.

The final day of regular competition yielded three fourth-placed finishes before Shaw was sixth in the medal race on Sunday.

Shaw admitted: “I feel like I have had bad fortune but it has been a great four years. It is tough, the Olympics is what we all aim for, the fact that this has not been my week is tough.

“I have had some amazing comments from the other competitors and coaches and amazement in that I haven’t performed to my best. I will learn from it and hopefully come back stronger for the next one (in Tokyo 2020).