Thomas Barr was in scintillating form at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational Meet in Florida on Friday, winning the 400m hurdles in 49.08 seconds — a world championship qualifying time.

Joanne Cuddihy has produced a season's best of 51.82 seconds to finish third in round one of the women’s 400m at the IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

EVEN in summer the road from Perpignan and the Med to the snowless, out of season ski resort of Font Romeu ranks as a long, hard slog.