Thomas Barr gets ‘back on track’ after season of frustration

The problem with big breakthroughs is they tend to happen only once, so in the aftermath, athletes can be left shaking their heads and scouring their training diaries to rediscover the blueprint for success.

For Thomas Barr, approaching 2017 has proven a tricky task. After all, he missed 11 weeks of training on the build-up to the Olympics last year with a hip injury, yet somehow everything clicked when it mattered most in Rio, the Waterford man smashing the national record in the Olympic 400m hurdles final to finish fourth in 47.97.

But no one plans for injury, as Barr knows, even if sometimes it has plans for you. Late last month the 24-year-old picked up a grade one hamstring tear in training, an ill-timed mishap which arrived a little over four weeks out from the London World Championships.