All eyes on Barr after mixed start
Gregan eyes first World final as sorry English bows out
THOMAS BARR gets his World Championship campaign underway today as he looks to build on his Rio 2016 performance. The Waterford native, fourth in the Olympic final last year, received a favourable draw in lane six, heat two of the 400 metre hurdles.
‘I feel like I’m back in racing mode, running just under 50 seconds at the National Championships put me in the right territory for World Championships’ he explained.
‘I’m still under the radar,’ joked Barr. ‘People won’t be looking at that thinking it wasn’t a great time but I know there is more to come, especially in a major championship.’
The 25-year-old has the thirdfastest season’s best in heat two, behind American TJ Holmes and Kyroon McMaster of the British Virgin Islands. The top four qualify automatically for Monday evening’s semi-fina and while Barr’s season was disrupted with a hamstring injury, he should have enough to make it through automatically.
Day two of London 2017 saw mixed performances for the Irish as Brian Gregan powered through to the 400m semi-final with Mark English (right) bowing out. Gregan rocketed home over the final 200 metres to finish third in heat four, posting 45.37 seconds with Steven Gardiner of Bahamas winning in 44.75 seconds. ‘I wouldn’t say I’m a morning person,’ explained Gregan, having raced in front of 50,000 people at 11am. ‘I’m rooming with Tommie Barr, I’m having the craic and literally woke up and said, “jeez I’ve a World heat today”. We’re serious when we need to be though. The race panned out as I expected it, I’m fast over the last 80 metres and I caught those guys.’
The 27-year-old has been drawn in semi-final two at 7:48pm this evening, with the first two and two fastest losers from three semis making the final.
‘On my best day and some people have an off day, anything is possible,’ explained Gregan, as he aims to make a first World final. ‘If people mess up I’m just going to close in on 45 seconds flat.’
English, meanwhile, bowed out for the second time in the opening 800m round finishing his heat fifth in 1:48.01.