Barr through to 400m semi-finals

By WIll Downing, London

Thomas Barr is through to tomorrow night’s semi-finals of the men’s 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in London – but his automatic qualification was anything but straightforward.

The Waterford athlete, fourth in the Olympic final in Rio a year ago, started well and was lying third heading into the final bend.

However, he began to fall away slightly to others in the closing straight, and was pipped on the line for fourth by fast-finishing Algerian Abdelmalik Lahoulou, who nipped past him two lanes inside.

With Barr taking fifth - and outside the four automatic qualifying positions from his heat - it meant the Irishman would have to wait to see if he would make it as a fastest loser.

However, a swift disqualification for Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands for a lane infringement saw Barr move up to fourth, and advance automatically to the semis.

Barr’s time of 49.79 was almost a second outside his season’s best of 48.95 set at the Bislett Games Diamond League meeting in Oslo in June, with Lahoulou edging him out by one-hundredth of a second.

2016 NCAA silver-medallist TJ Holmes of the United States took the honours in 49.35, with Jamaican Jahell Hyde second in 49.72.

Barr’s chances have improved though with Olympic silver-medallist Boniface Tumuti of Kenya not travelling, while Rasmus Mägi of Estonia – a regular close opponent of the Deise native - did not start his heat.

However, the Ferrybank AC hurdler knows he must markedly improve tomorrow night.

Barr said afterwards: “I can imagine what it looks like on the TV. I only realised after that I got caught on the line by Lahoulou, which I didn’t expect. He came out of nowhere in the last metre. I had nothing to answer to – but it was tense.

“I felt like I didn’t do myself justice initially as I was going for top two, and aim for 49-low for a good lane position for tomorrow.

“I’ve got through as a fastest qualifier now, so I won’t get a horrible lane 1 or lane 9, though it’s not where I wanted to be. I wanted to be top two and give myself a confidence boost.

“This has given me an extra focus though. I know where I need to pick up the race, and pick up the time.”