Waterford and Ireland’s Thomas Barr after finishing fourth in the Men’s 400m Hurdles Final at Olympic Games in Rio on Thursday last. Photo: Inpho/Morgan Treacy.

For four days last week all Waterford eyes were centred on the Olympic Stadium in Rio as Thomas Barr from Graiguearrida Dunmore East, a member of Ferrybank AC, lined out for Ireland in the 400 metres Hurdles. First up were the heats on Monday and all were wondering what shape he was in after his very much curtailed season due to a recurring hip injury.
Unlike 2015 when he won the World University title and competed in several Diamond league meetings against the World’s best he had just three races this season, the Irish Championship in June where he retained his title in 50.28, the heat of the European Championships again in late June finishing second in 50.17 and the semi final of the same competition where he finished third in 50.09. A week before he left for Rio he pulled out of a race in Dublin as a precautionary measure due to a slight niggle. He lined up for the heats in the Olympics with three to qualify automatically and from lane two put up a fine show to easily qualify in second spot in a seasons best of 48.93.
On Tuesday he was back in the semi finals with two certain to qualify and he ran a super race from lane three to win in a new Irish record time of 48.39 beating his old mark of 48.65.With a day’s rest he was back on Thursday in the final running in lane four with the third fastest time of the eight qualifiers, the first Irish athlete in 84 years (since Bob Tisdall in 1932) to make a sprint final.

Olympic Final
In the final he faced the favourite Clement from the USA, twice World Champion and Olympic silver medalist in 2008. Culson from Peurto Rico, twice runner up in the Worlds and bronze medal winner at the London Olympics. Copella, a Cuban running for Turkey, who had won the 2016 European Championship in June. In addition there were two Kenyans who had been first and third in this year’s African championships, a Jamaican World Junior Champion in 2014 and an Estonian twice second in European championships. Drawn in lane four as the pistol sounded it sounded again and Culson was disqualified for breaking. Next time they were off and in the early stages with a fierce pace up front Thomas seemed well back up to the third and fourth hurdles, then he began to make an impression and with his customary late finish he came from sixth to fourth and just missed out on a medal by 0.05 of a second posting a new Irish record again of 47.97. The winner was Clement who was timed at 47.72…..lots more in this week’s Waterford Sport in the Waterford News & Star.