With less than a fortnight to go until the World Athletics Championships in Beijing, Irish hurdler Thomas Barr has a place in the final of the 400m hurdles firmly in his sights.
This year, Barr has smashed his own Irish record and taken the gold at the World University Games in Korea – a massive confidence boost, though not quite at the same level as a world championships or an Olympic Games. He’s taking nothing for granted.
“The final in Beijing is where I want to be, but I’m not going to count chickens. I’m currently ranked 10th in the world but I’m surprised that I’ve lasted there so long. Anyone running around 48 seconds is a threat.”
Last season, Barr went to the European Championships gunning for a medal but crashed out in the semi-finals.
“Zurich was my first major championships and it didn’t go well, but in Korea I showed that I could deal with disappointment and get over it and also handle the pressure. I was fastest in the heats and then the semi-finals so then the pressure was on for the final and I dealt with that.”
He’s not thinking too hard about who’s out there – among them four Americans including Bershawn Jackson, Johnny Dutch and Michael Tinsley, as well as Javier Coulson of Puerto Rico, the Kenyan Nicholas Bett, and Patryk Dobek of Poland.
“I don’t spent too much time bothering about the others in a race. In the 400m hurdles, you need tunnel vision – it’s not like other races where tactics come into it. You just have to run your own race and concentrate on your technique.”
Nor is he allowing the current revelations about widespread doping upset him. “There ‘s nothing I can do about the doping problem. All I can do is keeping training the way I’ve always done and hope that when I line out for a race, the other athletes are clean.”
He believes it is up to the authorities – not the athletes – to sort out the scourge of doping, and hopes the current revelations will spur them on to do something. Having finally made it on to the world stage, he’s not going to turn down invitations to big meets because he may come up against dopers.
“If I get an invitation to run at Diamond League meeting I’m not going to turn it down. I’m going to get a fast race and the Diamond League is where I need to be at this stage in my career. There’s more to it than just racing – ranking points and funding are at stake.”
As far as he’s concerned athletes who take drugs are not just cheats but thieves. “When I watch a race with known dopers, I’m not thinking about them but about the athletes behind them. There’ s such a big difference in sport between winning a medal and not making it. It’s not’s just the medals, there are grants and endorsements that you miss out on. Those that cheat are stealing from the clean athletes.”
Since the start of the year, Barr has been tested “between six to ten times”. “You have to be careful about what you put in your body. Ignorance is no excuse.”
Keeping healthy is his biggest concern. After his great win in Korea, the long journey home from Korea caused his ongoing hip injury to flare up again and he ran his slowest race of the year at the London Anniversary Games – though his time was still under 50 seconds.
“I have a labral tear of the cartilage in the hip that was diagnosed two years ago. I could have surgery which would mean a full year out and no guarantee that it would work. It rears its head at awkward times – like at the European Championships in Zurich last year. But I have got used to managing it. In Korea, it played up in the heats, but then it was almost 100% again for the semi-finals.”
Barr loves the big occasions and he can’t wait for the World Championships. “In London, I was running in front of the biggest ever crowd and I loved it. I’m looking forward to that again.”
Thomas Barr will compete in this weekend’s Glo Health National Track and Field Championships in Santry.
Some interesting facts about Barr:
* He took up 400m hurdling because he found he was good at it. “I’d tried everything else!”
* He never runs for more than 20 minutes, or 600m on the track.
* He loves cars and, with friends, runs a “drift” car – a BMW that costs €300 on Done Deal.
* He wears a dozen or so wrist bands, including one from his Leaving Cert holiday . “It’s a bit smelly that one.”
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