Great Britain's 4x400metres women's relay team may have been missing rested individual gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu but they posted a season's best time to ease into Sunday's final at the World Championships in Osaka.

Lee McConnell, Donna Fraser, Marilyn Okoro and 400m silver medallist Nicola Sanders clocked three minutes 25.45 seconds to finish second behind the USA, who set a world-leading time of 3mins 23.37secs without 200m champion Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards.

McConnell, who set a season's best in her 400m semi-final, handed Britain a narrow lead over the USA after the first lap before Fraser settled in behind American Monique Hennagan as the field bunched up down the back straight.

Okoro ran a comfortable third leg in second to hand Sanders, who set her lifetime best in Wednesday's 400m final, an easy task of finishing off the job and securing a final berth as Britain look to build on the bronze medal won two years ago in Helsinki.

"It was a matter of qualifying," said Sanders. "The girls did a good job and didn't leave me much to do.

"Christine Ohuruogu was spared after she won gold. She has got over all the criticism and is very positive about the race."

Great Britain's 4x400m men's team also secured a place in the final after enduring a nervous wait following a season's best 3:01.22 to finish outside the automatic qualifying places in the first heat.

But Andrew Steele, Rob Tobin, Richard Buck and Martyn Rooney were rewarded for their efforts to grab a lucky loser berth after a much slower second heat, which was won by the USA.