Barrs and Gregan gets lines right but Cuddihy fluffs hers

ATHLETICS:WHOEVER DESCRIBED the 400 metres as the "man killer" clearly didn't have Brian Gregan in mind. Whoever decided to put 10 three-foot hurdles in the way clearly didn't tell Thomas Barr.

When Jessie Barr and Joanne Cuddihy came out and ran similarly defiant in their women’s equivalent it didn’t seem such a killer event after all. Then, as subtle as the Scandinavian breeze, it claimed Cuddihy as a victim – although she wasn’t the only one.

Because whoever lined this track in Helsinki possibly didn’t check their angles: very rarely do 400-metre runners step over the line, yet seven men did here, and two woman – the obvious disappointment from an Irish perspective being that the last of them was Cuddihy.

In an otherwise perfect display of Irish one-lap running on the opening day, Cuddihy was disqualified immediately after her heat of the 400 metres flat – having comfortably run 52.20 seconds to claim an automatic qualifying spots for this evening’s semi-finals.

Earlier, there’d been seven lane infringements in the five heats of the men’s 400 metres, including three in heat one alone. Not that it mattered to Gregan, who not only won that heat in a lifetime best 45.63 seconds – making him the third fastest Irishman in history – but ended up the fastest qualifier.

The 22-year-old from Tallaght is deservedly buoyant about his semi-final prospects, even if the more important target is the Olympic A-standard of 45.30.

Just a month ago Gregan still wasn’t sure if he’d be racing at all this summer: the blessing in disguise being a virus that forced him to back off in training.

“I’d missed three months training, had been really ill, since indoors, with gastro-enteritis,” he explained. “And I was doing final exams. I never totally stopped training, but could only keep ticking away. So I’m delighted with that, and thanks to the Irish Institute of Sport, and my coach John Shields, for helping to get me so right.”

Ideally, qualification for the final will come closer to that A-standard of 45.30: “Yeah, I’m edging closer. Of course it’s in the back of my mind. I’m here to get an A-standard. There’ll be no holding back, hopefully getting into the final anyway.”

Among the seven men disqualified was Britain’s Richard Buck, who won the third heat in 45.83 – although he was reinstated on appeal, his infringement somehow more borderline than the others.

Barr produced a near-perfect run in his heat of the 400m hurdles, taking second in a season best of 50.59.

“A little relieved,” the 19-year-old said, “but very happy with the time as well. Coming off the back stretch, into hurdles seven and eight, can be one of my flaws, but I got through it okay. And these championships are a great stepping stone for me.

“I’m trying to keep those thoughts of the Olympic A-standard at bay, and just get through the semi-final as fast as I can, give my all, and see where that takes me.”

Barr needs 49.50 to take him to London, and may need to run close to that just to make the final: he’s in far older, faster company in today’s semi-finals, but his potential was once again underlined.

Talent clearly runs in the family, too, with sister Jessie – exactly three years older – also progressing to her semi-final of the 400m hurdles as an automatic qualifier, taking third in 56.30.

By then she was aware of the difficulties some athletes were having with the tight bends: “The bend is definitely strange. It’s long, but with a tight curve, and that kind of throws you wide. I really had to concentrate.

“The Finnish girl in my race actually warned me about it. So I was a little apprehensive, and my stride pattern was up and down! Usually my ideal pattern is 14 strides to the fourth hurdle, 15 strides to hurdle eight, then 16 strides home. But straightaway I went up to 15, then 16. I clipped the first hurdle as well. So there is more there, if I can get that stride pattern right.”

Although an appeal against her disqualification was submitted, and turned down, Cuddihy wasn’t making excuses. “I’d seen what happened earlier in the morning, was very conscious of it. Coming off the bend I was feeling very comfortable, decided to go for it, and for whatever reason almost tripped outside my lane.

“Straightaway I cursed to myself, and I don’t know if anyone heard that, but I was just hoping no one saw what happened. But I knew I was probably gone. I just thought run through, qualify anyway. It’s more embarrassing than anything else.”