Charlie Grice has set his sights on capping an eventful debut Olympics with an unlikely medal.

The 22-year-old from Brighton thought his Games were over almost before they began on Tuesday when he finished 11th in his 1,500m heat after being shoved in the home straight by Filip Ingebrigtsen.

Grice was given a reprieve as officials disqualified Ingebrigtsen and put the former Cardinal Newman pupil straight through to the semi-final.

The Brighton Phoenix star made the most of his second chance when he produced a superb run to finish fifth in his semi – in a time of 3min.40.05sec – in the early hours of yesterday morning.

It means he will line up in the final at the Olympic Stadium at 1am tomorrow morning in a field containing just one other European – Spain’s David Bustos.

And despite being a complete outsider Grice is confident that he can improve on his ninth place finish at the World Championships in Beijing 12 months ago – and is not ruling out getting among the medals if he can get his tactics right.

Grice said: “I am focused on the final and getting it right there. I need to get the tactics right and anything can happen in a final.

“I feel in a lot better shape than last year (in Beijing) so let’s see what happens in the final.

“I am going for a medal and that is why I am here. You have seen people who should have got through but they didn’t so anything can happen.”

Grice is the first Sussex athlete to make an Olympic final in a track event since Mark Rowland – also of Brighton Phoenix – won bronze in the 3,000m steeplechase in Seoul in 1998.

And he has eclipsed his idol Steve Ovett – the co-founder of the Phoenix club – who failed to make the final in the 1,500m at his debut Olympics in 1976 before going on to win bronze along with 800m gold four years later in Moscow.

Grice was delighted to have shown people what he can do in Rio after admitting he was “lucky” not to have been knocked out in the heats.

Grice added: “I’m so happy to get through because Tuesday didn’t go well at all. I am very happy to redeem myself.

“I told myself I was in amazing shape. I was very lucky to get through in the heat so I was delighted.

“I told myself my 800m speed is very good. I manged to find gaps and get through them so that was a relief. With the top five, you keep pushing to the line.”