Cuddihy turns frown upside down

Joanne Cuddihy walked off the Olympic track on Saturday night with a smile replacing the frown which dominated her face a day earlier.

On Friday, she was disgusted with her performance in the 400m heats after she stormed from the blocks and struggled down the finishing straight. But she was given an unexpected chance to atone by sneaking through to the semi-finals amongst the fastest qualifiers.

And the Kilkenny star grabbed the opportunity to make amends to finish fifth in 51.88 with American Sanya Ross-Richards leading them home in 50.07. Rosemarie Whyte claimed the last final spot on 50.98 with Cuddihy’s display the 16th fastest of the 24 women in action.

“I came here with a plan and I exceeded it,” the 28-year-old admitted.

“Obviously before the Games I would have said I wanted to go close to my personal best form and get back there. I had a big long talk with my coach and we had a very specific plan about what to do in the semi-final. The idea was that I would finish as strongly as possible; to control the first half of the race, because I was a bit embarrassed by how downbeat I was in my interviews after the heats.

“But if you die in the last 30 metres it leaves you with such a horrible feeling, you are just gutted, you have tied up and you can’t do anything about it.

“So no matter what happened I wanted to finish strong and the idea was to just not get carried away in the first half, let other girls speculate and hopefully kill themselves and really go for it, use the stagger and pick them off up the home straight. I think it was right, it was the most likely way I was going to sneak my way into the final. But unfortunately it was not quite enough.”

Earlier on Saturday Stephanie Reilly was ninth in her 3000m Steeplechase heat in 9:44.77. The time left her 27th overall with 9:30.06 the slowest qualifier to progress to the semi-finals.

The 34-year-old Wickow woman said: “I’m happy and at the same time a little disappointed. I tied up in the last 600 metres.’’

Earlier in the day Tori Pena failed to record the required measure in the Pole Vault.