Joy, drama and heartbreak for Irish athletes

There was a mix of joy, drama and heartbreak for the Irish athletes in action on the opening day of the European track and field championships in Helsinki yesterday.

Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers) was the star of the show as he returned a career best time of 45.63 secs to win his first round head of the men’s 400m – in fact his was the fastest time of the day.

Earlier Tom and Jessie Barr from the Ferrybank club finished second and third, respectively, in their first round heats of the 400m hurdles to gain automatic selection to for today’s semi-finals and Jason Smyth (City of Derry) fought back from a slow start to qualify for the semi-finals of the men’s 100m.

But there was drama and heartbreak for Joanne Cuddihy (Kilkenny CH) in her first round heat of the women’s 400m when, after cruising home in third place and looking assured of a place in the semi-finals, she was disqualified for running outside her lane.

“It was so obvious that we did not even lodge an appeal,” Olympic Team Manager, Patsy McGonagle, said after he and Team Leader Kevin Ankrom had watched a re-fun of the race in the officials’ room.

It was the second dramatic exit from a major championships for the Irish record holder who was disqualified when she false-started at the world championships in Daegu last year.

Brian Gregan posted another new pb at 45.63 secs to win his first round heat of the 400m from Pavel Maslak (Czech Republic), 45.87 secs and Kacper Kozlowski (Poland) 46.30.

“I am absolutely thrilled with the time and the win,” the 22 year old Dubliner said. “We have worked a lot on my technique this year and I think that really showed. I felt fresh and I am now looking forward to the semi-finals where I won’t be holding anything back.”

Thomas Barr (Ferrybank AC) finished strongly to snatch second place in 59.49 secs from Emir Bekric (Serbia), 59.73 secs, in his heat of the men’s 400m hurdles with victory going to Georg Fleischhauer (Germany) in 50.22 secs.

“I felt really good coming down the back straight today and from there I felt stronger and stronger as the race went on,” he said.”

“I am delighted to be under 51 seconds again and to secure automatic qualification. I am just going to rest now and then give it my all in the semi finals.”

His sister, Jessie Barr, despite the disadvantage of a Lane 2 draw, finished third in her heat of the women’s 400m hurdles in 56.30 secs — the second fastest time of her career – to qualify for today’s semi-finals.

“I was hoping to go sub 56 today and if I can get my stride pattern sorted before the semi-finals hopefully that will come,” she said. “The aim was to secure automatic qualification for the semi-finals.”

Double Paralympic sprint champion, Jason Smyth (City of Derry) finished fourth in his first round heat of the men’s 100m in 10.47 secs to qualify for last evening’s semi-finals in which he finished seventh in 10.52 secs.

Jason Harvey (Crusaders AC) was eliminated from the men’s 400m after finishing sixth in his heat in 51.83.