Joanne Cuddihy has qualified for the semi-final of the women's 400m at the Olympic Games in London.
The 28-year-old from Kilkenny City Harriers is the Irish women’s record holder over the distance and finished fourth in her heat in a time of 52.09.
Cuddihy, who finished behind Francena McCorory of the US, Great Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu and Joy Sakari of Kenya, initially thought she was out.
However, the fastest three non-qualifiers progress along with the first three in each heat, and as torrential rain began to fall on the Olympic Stadium, times began to drop.
Cuddihy, who was away in the first heat, saw her time continue to hold up as each of the remaining six heats finished, and she eventually went through as the fastest runner-up.
"I’m not going to lie, I was sick with nerves beforehand but we all will be, that’s part of it" - Joanne Cuddihy
The Dublin runner spoke to RTÉ’s Joe Stack in the immediate aftermath of her heat, seemingly convinced that she would not be going to the semi-final.
"I know a can do a lot better but today that was everything I had. I went out very fast, in retrospect it was probably too fast but I did that because I really really thought I could," she said.
"I thought I could still finish really strong and that was what I had to do to get the kind of times that I wanted to run and it was just a gamble that didn’t play off today.
"That was some crowd, a super track and I would have loved to have the opportunity to go out again.”
Despite her fears, Cuddihy with get that chance tomorrow evening when she runs in the semi-finals
