Shinkins bows out and sets sights on Europeans

Brendan Mooney

She went into the race facing an enormous task with the Olympic gold and silver medallists in the line-up.

“I knew that if I pb’d there was a good possibility I could make it to the final,” she said. “I was in a fast heat and I saw it as an opportunity to run a fast time but it did not materialise.” Out in Lane 8, she got away well and ran smooth for the first 150m when two runners loomed up from the inside lanes and she appeared to lose all her composure.

“At that point I let my mind trip,” she said. “I started checking where the rest of the field was and that was a very bad thing to do.

“I should have stayed within my race and just kept going. Now my rhythm was lost and my concentration was lost. I just stayed with the girl who passed me first but then, when I started checking around for others it was not the thing to do. My whole race just fell apart.

“I should have stayed within my own race and just hammered it out.”

She drifted more and more in the finishing straight as the remainder of the field went past.

“I wanted to go out there and do myself justice, run a fast time and maybe make the final and right up to half way in the race I felt good. I felt good in the warm up, my strides were good and I was focused.

“It has been a great year for me. My confidence is coming back, my strength is up and I am finding snippets of my old self. It is all pretty exciting.

“I want to build on this now. With another winter’s solid training behind me I feel I will be in form for the Europeans and if I continue to progress as I have this year I should be a serious threat when they come around.

Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling (Bahamas) and silver medallist Ana Guevara (Mexico) finished first and second in 49.69 and 50.33, respectively. The third and fourth finishers, Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling (Bahamas) and silver medallist Ana Guevara (Mexico) finished first and second in 49.69 and 50.33, respectively.