THOMAS BARR is determined to sign off on a high if it turns out this season is his lap-a-goner.
Barr is preparing for this week’s European Championships in which he will compete in the 400m hurdles and potentially both the men’s and mixed 4x400m relays.
The Waterford man — who came fourth in the Rio Olympics— is someway short of his best, with Achilles and calf niggles disrupting his season.
But a bronze medal in the mixed event at the World Relay Championships last month has put a spring in his step for what could be his swansong.
Barr, 31, said: “I suppose I’m kind of coming probably towards the end of my career.
“I’m not sure how much longer I have left.
“I’m going to see how it plays out. It is in the back of my mind that this could be my last season but with that in mind, it’s not a bad thing because I’m not taking things for granted.
“I am trying to enjoy what I am doing and also perform to the best I can.
“I’m not turning down any opportunities because I don’t know how much longer it might last.
“There is an element of a good thing coming to an end and an element of sadness with that.
“But I am also using it as fuel to say if this is my last year then I am going to do everything I can to be in the best position I can and to enjoy the year and perform as best I can, go out with a bang kind of thing.”
Next up is Rome and Barr said: “I live for racing. I live for championships.
“This is my favourite part of the year so I wanted to make sure I got in as much as I could.
“So I wanted to put my name in the hat for the World Relays, put my name in the hat for Europeans and then hopefully get myself qualified for the Olympics.
Because I don’t have the Olympic qualification standard yet, I’m hoping that the Europeans would be a really, really good opportunity to run that.”
A TOUGH HURDLE
He has his work cut out to be in the shake-up for a European medal, not helped by having to negotiate the heats as he is ranked outside the top 12.
The Ferrybank AC star said: “I’ve always said I think it’s a silly system because at a championships, anything can happen. It should be a clean slate.
“Especially in a technical event like the hurdles, someone can hit a hurdle, someone can mess up a stride pattern and they can be disqualified.
“We saw it in Rio in 2016, Javier Culson, a favourite for a medal, false started and put himself out of the race.
“That stuff can happen when it comes to championships and you’re taking away a little bit of that excitement.”
The 2018 European bronze medallist added: “Now I’d like to be in the top 12 this time because it is going to be busy with the mixed relay and men’s 4×4.
“But at the same time I do like having that preliminary round just as a little bit of a rust buster and to get a feel for the track.
“I’m 49.5 so far this year. It’s going to take a 48-low if not even a 47 to get into the medals.
“Am I in that shape at the moment?
“I’m probably in like high-48, low-49 shape at the moment but we have some fine-tuning to do which will hopefully bring me down that little bit more and once you get into a final anything can happen.”
The mixed relay is a more realistic source for a podium finish, both in Rome and Paris.
Barr said: “We were third in the World Relays and we were extremely close to the Netherlands.
“We’ve definitely put a marker down and other nations are going to be looking at us as a favourite.
“We can come home with a gold medal if we get everything right on the day and if we get our tactics right and put down the kind of performance that we did at the Bahamas.
“There’s no reason why we can’t be coming home with a medal around our necks from Europeans and I think that’s where we should be aiming.
“It’s added that extra layer of excitement, I’ve always loved relays.”