The prize ahead is one he’s yet to get his hands on, an achievement Thomas Barr would dearly love to secure here in the desert city of Doha, Qatar: a world final.

Karsten Warholm has smashed the European 400m hurdles record again, recording the second-fastest time ever as Thomas Barr finished sixth in the Diamond League Final at the Weltklasse Zurich meeting.

Thomas Barr had to make do with fourth-place at tonight’s latest Diamond League meeting in Rome, but the Waterford star did record his second-fastest 400m hurdles of the season as Rai Benjamin of the United States decimated the field.