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©INPHO/Ian MacNicol
Road to London

Barr misses Olympic time in Germany

The Waterford runner will be back in action in the 400m hurdles at the National Championships tomorrow.

JESSIE BARR’S ROLL of the Olympic dice came up short last night as she missed out on the qualifying time for the women’s 400m hurdles.

The Waterford runner is already part of Ireland’s 4x400m squad for London but she wedged in a meet in Bottrop, Germany to try to hit the 400m hurdle “A” standard before tomorrow’s deadline.

Barr finished fourth in a time of 56.81 seconds, far below her personal best of 55.93 set at last week’s European Championships in Helsinki and well outside the Olympic time of 55.5.

“Well that race didn’t exactly go according to plan,” she tweeted afterwards. “Damn. Onto the Nationals!”

Barr will be in action in the 400m hurdles at the Senior Track and Field Championships in Santry tomorrow.

There was better news in Bottrop for Deirdre Ryan, whose clearance at 1.90m was enough to win the high jump. In the women’s 800m, Rose-Anne Galligan was sixth in a time of 2:02.62, over three seconds behind race winner Caster Semenya of South Africa.

Another of Ireland’s Olympic hopefuls, Brian Gregan, races tonight in Madrid in a bid to qualify for the men’s 400m.

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