It was a disappointing night for the Irish on Day Three of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon with both Thomas Barr (Ferrybank AC) and Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea AC) failing to advance to finals.
Barr finished fifth in his 400m Hurdles semi-final failing to advance to the final. Barr stumbled after clearing hurdle eight and struggled to get his momentum together like he had done in the heat the evening before. He crossed the line in 50.08s. The Waterford man now set his eyes on the European Championships in Munich next month.
Coscoran will now also look to Munich. The Balbriggan man struggled in the final lap of his 1500m semi-final and couldn’t stay in touch with the leaders finishing twelfth in 3.44.66.
Morning Session
Earlier in the day Chris O’Donnell (North Sligo AC) and Rhasidat Adeleke (Tallaght AC) both advanced to the Semi-Finals of the 400m.
O’Donnell ran in the sixth and final heat of the Men’s event from Lane 8 and got out hard in the first 200m. He battled to finish fourth in his heat outside the automatic qualifying spots but good enough to advance as a fastest non automatic qualifier. O’Donnell finished in a time of 46.01s. Having ran three 400m’s hard in the past two days he can now look forward to a break. His semi-final will take place at 3.23pm Irish Time on Thursday morning.
Adeleke looked extremely impressive as she finished second behind Dominican Marileidy Paulino to secure automatic qualification to Thursday morning’s semi-finals. The Dubliner, who had missed the final of the 4x400m Mixed Relay, ran a time of 51.59s. Her semi-final will be at 2:45am and she has been given a favourable lane draw, she will race from Lane 5.
There was disappoint for Sophie Becker (Raheny Shamrocks AC) who had been targeting a PB in her heat. Becker finished fifth in a time of 52.24s, missing out on a semi-final spot by only 0.06s. Becker had came into the championships ranked 41st but finished 26th. She will now turn her attention to competing at the European Championships.
There are no Irish athletes in action on Day Four and Day Five of the Championships. As mentioned Adeleke and O’Donnell will return for the 400m semi-finals in the early stages of Thursday morning, while Mark English (Finn Valley AC) will also take to the track in the Men’s 800m heats.
