Smith safely through but has difficulties after tough race

Susan Smith is through to the final of the women's 400 metres hurdles tomorrow evening after winning the third of the three semi-final heats in a time of 55.65 seconds.

Victory came at a price, however, for afterwards she was so distressed that she was unable to attend the press conferences which are standard practice on these occasions.

It was later explained that she had got physically sick but after an interval of 20 minutes she was eventually composed enough to describe it as one of the worst ordeals of her career.

"I felt dreadful before and during the race and I've no idea why," she explained. "It was hard work all the way, certainly harder than I had expected.

"Now I have 48 hours to get it right and hopefully I'll feel more comfortable in the final. At this point, I'm just happy that I've got there."

It was, undeniably, a difficult experience for the Waterford woman who was responsible for one of the three false starts. Once she was up and into her stride, it was apparent that she would qualify but she had to struggle all the way down the finishing straight to hold off the Russian Anna Knoroz who was just three hundredths of a second behind her.

Smith was not alone in her travail for earlier Germany's Silvia Rieger was so exhausted by the effort required in scoring a surprise win over Tatyana Tereshchuk that she was unable to walk off the track for about seven minutes.

That was a measure of the conditions but they didn't deter the championship favourite, Ionela Tirlea of Romania, who produced the fastest time in the series when beating Iceland's Gudrun Arnardottir in 54.89 seconds.

Quite the biggest talking point of yesterday's hurdles races was the shock elimination of the world champion, Stephane Diagana of France, in the 400 metes.

Diagana, regarded as one of the bankers of the championships, was going easily in the lead when he caught the second-last hurdle with his trailing leg and ended up in total disillusionment on the floor.

Such are the hazards of this event but for Tom McGuirk, running in the same race as Diagana, defeat was more orthodox. After a fine run in the heats, McGuirk's technique deserted him on this occasion and after meeting the first two hurdles all wrong eventually finished seventh in 51.12 seconds, more than two seconds slower than the winner, Pawel Januszewski of Poland.

After qualifying for today's semi-finals of the women's 400 metres by finishing third in her heat in a national record of 52.3 seconds, Karen Shinkins expressed the hope that she can improve still further.

"It was my first big championship race and I felt good throughout," she said. "Now with that experience behind me, I'm looking for more improvement."

The early signs were scarcely encouraging for the Newbridge woman as Alison Curbishley, drawn in an inner lane, floated effortlessly past her within 120 metres.

But Shinkins used that to her advantage and with the British girl in her sights throughout, she finished sufficiently strongly to encourage hope among Irish supporters in the stadium.

The heat was won by Helena Fuchsova of the Czech Republic in 51.61 seconds, almost half a second faster than Curbishley but the most fluent running in the preliminaries came from Germany's Grit Breuer, a ready winner in 51.60 seconds.

The men's hammer gave the crowd a double cause for celebration as Tibor Gecsek and Olympic Champion Balasz Kiss took go0ld and silver respectively.

Eugene Farrell made a quick exit from the men's 400 metres championship, finishing last of eight in a disappointing time of 47.56 seconds in the heat won by Tomasz Czubak of Poland.

Farrell, based in Australia, lost much of his momentum at the 250-metre mark and now faces an uncertain future as a member of the Ireland squad.

Patrice Dockery, a familiar name in domestic competition, finished fifth in the women's 800 metres wheelchair race won by Britain's Tani Grey in 2:06.68. Dockery's time was 2:16.41.