MARCUS LAWLER ADMITTED his performance was “not good enough” after failing to qualify from the 200m heats at the European Championships.
Despite being the top-ranked runner in his heat, Lawler endured a sticky last 50 and wound up in fifth spot in Berlin, missing out on qualification for the European semi-finals.
The 23-year-old clocked a time of 20.80 seconds — a full 0.40 slower than his season’s best in Cork last month, which was the second-fastest time ever ran by an Irish athlete over the distance.
Speaking to RTÉ after today’s heat, the Carlow man couldn’t hide his devastation at missing out on the semis.
Marcus Lawler devastated by his performance in the Men's 200m at the European Championships, saying it was not good enough pic.twitter.com/GdedP61RuH
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 8, 2018
“Not good enough, like,” Lawler said.
“I set myself a realistic goal of making the final, and now I’m gone in the first round. I’m very disappointed with it. It’s just the performance wasn’t good enough, and that’s just it.
“I’ll have to watch it back and see, but that’s not good enough.
“I was ranked number one in that heat on paper… I know it doesn’t always [correspond] to paper, but I’m not sure… It doesn’t take away from the season I had but it’s so strange.”
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