Barr third in Zurich Diamond League

Barr third in the Letzigrund

Thomas Barr finished an excellent third at the IAAF Diamond League in Zurich last night running 49.79 in cold conditions behind Kariem Hussein of Switzerland, who won in 49.16.

The 22-year-old admitted afterwards that he was tired after the comedown from the IAAF World Championships in Beijing.

“I just didn’t have it in me today,” said Barr to Cathal Dennehy after the race. “It was a bit of a shoddy race. I struggled a bit. I think the travel may have taken it out of me. I haven’t run at all really since Saturday, and that was in China, so it was tough getting back into the swing of things.

“I still feel like I’m on China time; last night I wanted to go to bed at 8:30, but I made myself stay up because I had to race at that time tonight. It was an amazing atmosphere racing in the stadium. I didn’t have a great race here last time [at the European Championships in 2014], this time it was just an okay race, so next time I hope it’ll be a good run.”

Barr will finish his season at the final IAAF Diamond League meeting in Brussels next Friday, where he will also race over 400m hurdles.