Ireland's Thomas Barr (400m hurdles) and Mark English (800m) have failed to qualify for their finals at the World Championships despite creditable fourth- and fifth-place efforts in their respective semi-finals.
Waterford man Barr came home fourth in his semi-final heat, in a time of 48.71.
The top two in each of three semi-final heats made the final alongside the two fastest losers, who qualified in times of 48.40 and 48.46, meaning Barr missed out by just a quarter of a second.
Holding his head high: @TomBarr247 4th in his semi in 48.71 and 11th overall #Beijing2015 pic.twitter.com/oDLoA092dK
— Athletics Ireland (@irishathletics) August 23, 2015
Drawn in lane 9 once more, Barr had it all to do in a race won by Kenya's Boniface Mucheru Tumuti in 48.29 - a new personal best for the Kenyan. USA's Kerron Clement was second in 48.50 with Russia's Timofey Chalyy third in 48.69.
"I’m a little bit annoyed because some athletes were slower than yesterday," said Barr afterwards. "Because I know if I ran close to or beyond my best, I could be in the final. I didn’t have as strong a kick as yesterday but I’ll take a huge amount from this World Championships, fourth in the semi-final with my second-fastest time ever is pretty good."
Letterkenny native English produced a strong final lap to move from the back of the field and clinch fifth in 1:45.55 in the third 800m semi-final, but finished tenth overall. Bosnia’s Amel Tuka, one of the favourites for the gold, won the semi-final in 1:44.84 – English’s personal best time.
“It was much easier than yesterday because I was focusing on running splits, trying to run 52 flat (through 400m),” commented the Letterkenny man afterwards in comparison to his first round heat where he finished fifth in 1:46.69.
“So I was just off it, I tied up a small bit on that last 50 but I don’t think, given the injury I had this season, I was going to do any more than that,” he continued. “These (semi-finals) usually go 51/52 first lap. I was trying to keep it as even as possible. I knew if I ran 1:44 I’d get through but it wasn’t out there today.
“It feels good, sometimes you’re judged on whether you made it through each round, and it’s judged as a failure if you fail at the semi-final stage, but if you came 11th in the marathon it’d be a great race, so that’s a good run."
Barr and English will combine later on in the week to run in the heats of the 4x400m relay heats on Saturday.
