Tiernan responds to make 5k final

Patrick Tiernan produced a Lazarus-type resurrection to qualify for the men’s 5000m final at the IAAF World Championships in London.

He ran fourth in his heat to automatically qualify for Sunday morning’s (AEST) final.

Back on night one of the championships, Toowoomba runner Tiernan finished last in the 10,000m final after almost stopping a number of times.

US-based Tiernan had no explanation for his 10,000m failure and admitted he was embarrassed by his performance.

“I’ve never personally had a result like that in the 10k,” he said.

“I’m still trying to figure out what happened but that’s something for after the championships and the end of the season, to look at what happened.”

Rather than dwell on the result, the 22-year-old spent time with friends and family and didn’t give the 5000m any thought until an hour before the event.

It was a masterstroke as he maintained a position at the front over the final four laps to finish fourth in 13min22.52sec.

“To be honest I didn’t really think about this race today until about an hour beforehand,” Tiernan said.

“It’s hard putting it behind you but at the end of the day you go out on the track and everything else disappears. You just focus on the guy in front of you and get going.”