Siblings aim to jump final hurdle and join A team

Jessie Barr and her brother Tom will have an eye on Olympic qualification when they line up for their respective first round heats of the 400m hurdles at the European track and field championships in Helsinki today.

Both are remarkably close to A standards they must achieve to book their places in London where a brother and sister competing in the same event would make a bit of Olympic history.

Jessie has beaten the B standard twice in the past year. She got under it for the first time at last year’s European U23 championships in Ostrava, where she finished fifth in the final of the 400m hurdles in 56.62 secs and, in May of this year, she posted a new PB of 56.16 to move closer to the A standard, set at 55.55.