Illness cruelly cuts Thomas Barr’s world championships short

Thomas Barr has been forced to withdraw from the semi-finals of the World Athletics Championships due to a vomiting bug.

Thomas Barr was one of Ireland's few medal hopes in the tournament and was scheduled to run in the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles on Monday evening. However, the 25-year-old's games ended early after being struck by the illness the night before the semis, as he explained to RTE.

"I'm gutted to have to withdraw from today's semi final. I wasn't feeling great yesterday evening and later in the night I was hit with a bad bout of gastroenteritis." "My whole year has been focused on the World Championships. The support yesterday was just brilliant and to not be able to go out and compete today for Ireland is beyond disappointing."

The Waterford man had a fairly dramatic qualification for the semis. He finished fifth in his heat, but gained automatic qualification after Kyron McMaster was disqualified. It turns out that Barr would have qualified anyway as one of the fastest losers. His absence means there will be no Irish interest on Day 4 of the championships.