IRELAND’S MEN’S 4x400m relay team agonisingly missed out on the Rio Olympics after finishing outside of the qualification time by seven hundredths of a second.
The quartet of Brian Gregan, Craig Lynch, David Gillick and Thomas Barr ran a season’s best time of 3:04.32 in this evening’s European Championships final but it just wasn’t enough.
Ireland knew they needed to run 3:04.25 or faster in Amsterdam but despite a surging last leg by Barr, fell heartbreakingly short.
It means Ireland lie in 17th position ahead of tomorrow’s deadline with the top 16 nations qualifying for this summer’s Games.
However, there are suggestions Japan have yet to submit a team and if that comes to pass, Ireland would take the final berth for Rio.
“We gave it our best shot but today it just wasn’t enough to get us in that qualifying spot,” Barr told RTÉ afterwards.
Gillick added: “We’re bitterly disappointed because we came so, so close. Seven hundredths of a second is nothing. But we can come off the track with our head held high against the best 400m runners in Europe.”
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