Ciara Everard and Ben Reynolds fail to fire in Beijing

Ciara Everard and Ben Reynolds found the going tough as they were knocked out of their respective heats in the 800m and 110m Hurdles on day 5 of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing.

Ciara Everard (UCD) went in heat 4 of the women's 800m and felt she got her tactics wrong as she finished 7th in 2:03.98. Poland's fast-finishing Sofia Annaoui won in 2:01.16.

“I think it was just tactics, I got it wrong,” said the Kilkenny woman afterwards. “I couldn’t position myself well for the first lap. Coming into it I didn’t know where my form was at but I felt really good in the race, it was kind of stop-start, tactically.”

There were no excuses for Everard who thought she had learned from her experiences at the European Indoor Championships in Prague in March. “I just got it wrong and there’s no real excuse for it, because I’ve been in that position before in Prague and I thought I learned from it but I’ll have to look at it again.

The 25-year-old felt she had recovered sufficiently from illness after the World University Games in South Korea and felt she was in good form but ultimately didn’t have legs in the final 100m to advance to the semi-finals.

“I feel like my form was good and there was no reason I shouldn’t have been there in the burn-up. It wasn’t that fast a pace but I’ll have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Ben Reynolds (North Down) was left frustrated with his 7th place finish in heat 4 of the 110m Hurdles in 13.72 seconds won by Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment in 13.33 - one of the championship favourites for the event.

“It was crap preparation the last 10 days,” said Reynolds after his race. “I did an especially fast day Saturday (11 days ago), and I hurdled that day and my lead leg (was sore the day after). I was just resting for the last 8 days. I got an old hip problem that takes about 10 days to settle. It’s a soft-tissue problem. It happened on the training camp. I’m pleased I raced. The first half of the race was good enough but then I started to fade.

“I felt I ran 13.2 pace the first half, 13.8 pace the second half. I’m feeling good because of what it was. Days ago it was a no-go. It was one of those things where it’s best not to step up the gears coming in. I’ll have to reflect now and make sure I’m absolutely fresh at peak season to go fast in training, so I think the rest of my body was ready, but one aspect wasn’t up to pace.”