THOMAS BARR HAS secured his place in the semi-final of the 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon after a superb heat run.
Barr ran a season’s best of 49.15 for second place to secure an automatic qualifying spot for Monday’s semi-final. Estonia’s Rasmus Mägi was first in 48.78.
“Familiar territory coming into a championship with haphazard preparation but very happy to get a big Q,” said Barr post-race.
“My shape has been pretty good in the last two weeks. I knew if I could put it together I should be able to qualify. Now we had the most stacked heat. It could have been a semi-final out there.
“Six of the top ten or fifteen in the world were in our heat by season best. I knew it would be tough but because I was in lane eight I had to go for it.”
Next up for Ireland on day 2 of these championships is Andrew Coscoran who goes in the heats of 1500m at 2.30am. On Day 3, Christopher O’Donnell has his 400m heats. At 8.00pm, Sophie Becker & Rhasidat Adeleke compete in their 400m heats before Barr’s semi-final in the early hours.
Meanwhile, Most eyes were on Norway’s Karsten Warholm, who produced one of the greatest Olympic track performances of all time last year when he smashed the 29-year-old world record to win the 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Games in a time of 45.94sec.
But the 26-year-old pulled up injured at the Diamond League meet in Rabat in early June with a “muscle fibre tear” in a hamstring, something he dubbed a “personal disaster”.
Doubts had been raised over his true fitness level, but the Norwegian vowed this week he was at 100% and looked comfortable as he coasted through his heat in his bid to bag a third consecutive world title.
“I felt things were under control, had a steady race. No pain so that’s a good sign. I feel I did everything I wanted,” said Warholm.
Joining them in Sunday’s semi-finals will be American Rai Benjamin and Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos, the silver and bronze medallists in Tokyo.
Elsewhere, Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey upstaged Dutch star Sifan Hassan to win the women’s 10,000m.
All eyes in the 10,000m were on Hassan, who produced a stunning 1500m-10,000m double at the 2019 world championships in Doha before winning 5000m and 10,000m gold and 1500m bronze at last year’s Olympics in Tokyo.
But the Ethiopian-born Dutch runner left herself with too much do with 200 metres to go and world record holder Gidey held her nerve for an impressive win.
Kenya’s Hellen Obiri and teammate Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi claimed silver and bronze, Hassan finishing just off the pace in fourth.
-Additional reporting AFP
