There's a regular smile on Thomas Barr's face as he sits alongside fellow Irish athlete Kerry O'Flaherty in a small room overlooking the Morton Stadium track in Santry. It's an irrepressible smile - one you feel would still be there even if he wasn't in a good place heading into this weekend's National Championships.
Barr has raced sparingly this summer. Hamstring and foot injuries have been minor problems but have been overcome. The Waterford man has been there before with injuries, he now knows how to deal with them. Mentally, he can work his way through it.
The six months building up to last year's stellar performance at the Olympic Games, one which would see him finish fourth in the 400m hurdles final, was full of setbacks. A persistent hip injury, one for which he and his camp have since found a solution was the main problem.
It turned out my hips were not aligned because my back was extremely tight. It was pulling my hips out of shape and putting a lot of pressure on the tendon to the front.
Once we’d worked that out, we worked out that I had to change my running mechanics. Once I maintained those sort of things throughout the year, I haven’t had any troubles.
He only really began proper training eight weeks before Rio. At the time, he considered just being on the plane to Brazil as bonus territory; population: Thomas Barr.
Compared to that frustration, an injury which he says caused him 'lose it' halfway through recovery, hamstring niggles such as the one picked up during training in recent weeks are minor. An MRI showed it to be a grade one strain, two weeks later he's injury free and ready for action this weekend.
The burden of achieving a qualifying time for the World Championships was lifted more than a month ago at the Oslo Diamond League meeting. Finishing third behind newcomer Karsten Warholm and Olympic bronze medalist Yasmani Copello, Barr ran well inside the time required, clocking 48.95.
This weekend, along with the main aim of retaining his Irish title, Barr hopes to use the heat and final to calibrate his training ahead of the World Championships.
Timewise, it’s hard to say. It’s going to depend on the type of race we have on Sunday, the conditions [are a big factor].
I’d like to go sub-50 but mainly what I want to take from the weekend are the aspects of, ‘How’s my speed? How’s my technical work? How’s my stride pattern? Did I feel strong over the last 100m?’
So then Hayley [his coach] can then tailor the couple of weeks training, which is vital for London.
His confidence going into London has been built on a solid base of winter training. Barr says he's at a better place now in terms of 200m and 300m times than he was at the same stage prior to Rio, a detail which bodes well for his chances of a podium finish next month.
There is a small part of Barr which is uncertain about his ability to again scale the heights of Rio. The step to eradicating those doubts has already been identified. He just needs a foothold, one which will allow him to reach that level consistently.
To be honest, there’s part of me that doubts if I’ll ever be able to replicate that sort of thing. Will I ever be able to get three strong rounds like that out and get down to the 47s again?
At the same time, that’s just because of the lead up I had to Rio and it came out of nowhere. That’s the sort of level that I can catapult myself into. I have to get comfortable competing at that level consistently and then it will become the norm.
It’s just because I haven’t gotten consistent at that but I’m looking forward to getting myself in that position in more championships and more one-off races as well.
Even if he does again match the level of his performance last August, other factors will come into the mix. There are newcomers on the scene such as the Norwegian Warholm and fastest man in the world this year Kyron McMaster.
While Barr once saw himself as part of the 'young gun' group, at nearly 25, that status is slipping. Still, it's all motivation.
To have the young guns, I thought I was a young gun until this year or last year. I see dates of birth that are now ‘95, ‘96, ‘97 and I’m 92.
To see that score sheet, moving up in the [age] ranks, it’s brilliant because I’m a little bit stubborn because I don’t want to get left behind and I want to keep pushing on. I’m all for it, 100 per cent.
400m hurdles defending champion Thomas Barr and steeplechaser Kerry O’ Flaherty were on hand to launch the Irish Life Health National Senior Track & Field Championships which will take place this weekend (July 22nd/23rd) in Morton Stadium.
Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
