McIlroy (right) will have high hopes of a medal on Sunday

The Larne runner was runner-up in his heat behind Spain's Antonio Manuel Reina but went through as the fastest loser from the three semi-finals.

McIlroy clocked 1:47.97 which left him .27secs behind Reina who will now go into the final as favourite.

Highly-rated Dmitriy Bogdanov and Amoud Okken also qualified for the final.

McIlroy's performance was faster than the 1:48.29sec of Juan Jurado, who defeated Okken - the fastest performer competing at the championships - in his heat, as well as the time of Bogdanov, the winner of the third heat.

Okken, of the Netherlands, went through to the final as one of the three fastest losers.

Russia's Bogdanov, who won the 800m in Madrid eight days ago, took the final heat in 1:48.02.

Meanwhile, Ireland's Alistair Cragg and Mark Carroll qualified for the 3000 final.

Cragg qualified for Saturday's final by toying with the opposition in his heat to win in 7:54.91.

2000 champion Carroll, meanwhile, also had a straightforward qualification by easing down to finish fourth in his heat in a time of 7:55.18.

Spain's Reyes Estevez is likely to be Cragg's main rival for the gold in Saturday evening's final which starts at 1915 GMT.

Alistair Cragg was impressive in his 3000m semi-final

Ireland's David Gillick produced a hugely impressive performance to qualify for the 400m final.

Gillick clocked 46.17 to win his heat which cut .27sec off the personal best he set in winning the AAA's Championship.

The Irishman's performance suggests that he is capable of troubling Spanish home favourite David Canal in the final.

Canal won his heat in 46.72 with another Irishman David McCarthy in fourth place in 47.36 and failing to progress while Rob Daly missed out on a final place by finishing a well-beaten third in 47.53 in his qualifier.

Russia's Dmitriy Forshev was second fastest qualifier in 46.60.

Irish 60 metres hopefuls Ailis McSweeney, Emily Maher and Jer O'Donoghue all bowed out at the opening stage on Friday morning.

McSweeney finished sixth and last in her heat and her time of 7.44 was .03 outside a fastest loser's spot for Friday evening's semi-finals and .07 short of her Irish record set last month.

Maher clocked a hugely disappointing 7.60 in her heat which was well-off her personal best while O'Donoghue was sixth in his qualifier in a time of 6.83.

Ireland's Roisin McGettigan was over 21 seconds outside the necessary qualification time as she clocked 4:35.04 to bow out of the women's 1500m.

In the men's 1500m, 2000 silver medallist James Nolan failed to qualify for Sunday's final when he finished ninth in his heat in 3:46.50.