Thomas Barr hoping to take leap forward after exceptional season

There is no immediate similarity between his hurdling and his drifting.

In one, Thomas Barr runs a 400m lap of the track, lined with 10 hurdles, each three-foot high, the first one placed 45m into the first bend, the other nine placed 35m apart, leaving a 40m dash to the finish line. The aim is to run it in or around 48 seconds.

In the other, Barr sits into an old stripped down BMW 3-series, rear-wheel drive, revs it up in neutral, then promptly drops it into first gear, spinning left and right, then around in circles. The aim is to keep it running for as long as possible.

“It’s a total adrenaline rush,” Barr says, of his drifting. “And you get out of the car with jelly legs, totally weak at the knees. Exactly like you’ve just run a 400m hurdles. It’s brilliant fun, and it’s actually relatively safe. Because once you start going sideways, you’re actually losing speed. It’s no more risky than getting behind the wheel of a car on the open road.

“And it’s nice to be able to switch off from athletics occasionally, like that. I think it’s important to be somewhat relaxed about it. It works me for anyway. And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Drifting, he explains, originated in Japan, then went global, thanks, in part, to the film Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Naturally, he only practices off road, with some college friends, in an old yard close to his home in Waterford.

Lose control

“It’s basically about trying to lose control of the car, while at the same time staying in control of it. So the back end of the car is sliding, and you’re maintaining it. There are actual races, and there can be points awarded for style, and things like that. But we don’t race. It’s just a bit of fun. And I’ve just always loved cars. Or anything with an engine.”

Now, whatever about the similarities, Barr has put his drifting on hold for a while to concentrate solely on his hurdling engine. He's telling me this a few days before departing for Beijing, where, everything going to plan, he hopes to make the World Championships final in the 400m hurdles.

No Irish athlete has ever gone that far in the event, but then Barr continues to break new ground: last summer, he became just the fourth Irish athlete to break the national record since Bob Tisdall (who, lest anyone forget, also won the 1932 Olympic gold medal in the event).

This summer, Barr improved that record again, running 48.65 seconds at the Rome Diamond League in June. That time still ranks him 11th fastest of the entries for Beijing. Only eight men can make the final: Barr, at 23 and still a relative novice at this level of competition, certainly believes he has a chance.

“If I can be on top form, competing as I have been, and get the best out of myself, there’s no saying what couldn’t happen. But the final is certainly where I want to be, yeah. Anyone running mid-48 seconds is capable of getting there. But I can only worry about my own race, and run that as best I can.”

Optimism

There is good reason for his optimism. Last month, Barr went to the World University Games in South Korea with the aim of winning a medal. After running 48.78 in the final, the second fastest time of his life, that medal turned out to be gold.

“That’s been massive for my confidence. I know some of the very top guys weren’t there, but it was a championship, and I went in there with expectations of a medal. At the European Championships in Zurich last year I had expectations of a medal, too. Then crashed and burned in the semi-finals. That was a major disappointment, but it also made me a stronger athlete. I felt more able to handle the pressure in Korea. I handled the rounds, then delivered in the final. And it took a very quick time to win. So it’s certainly given my confidence a massive boost.”

Starting pistol

Barr is one of the first Irish athletes on the track in Beijing (his heat is set for 11.35, Irish time, on Saturday morning) and his relaxed approach, to both his drifting and his hurdling, will be immediately lost once the starting pistol is fired.

He’s both fiercely and consistently competitive, reflected in the fact that 10 of his races this season have been under 50 seconds, and three have been sub-49. Ironically, his 48.65 felt the easiest of them all.

“It did actually feel easy, in that I didn’t feel very tired. It felt more like a training run. But conditions in Rome were perfect, and I just held with the pack the whole way around. I came off the track, and saw [American] Bershawn Jackson ran 48-something. And I was thinking I wasn’t that far behind. It was only when someone told me I’d run a national record that I realised how fast it was. And it’s often like that. The best races feel the easiest.”

Making the final in Beijing will certainly not be easy, but another 48.65 seconds certainly wouldn't be far off. Either way, Barr is ready to run fast and furious, and will need to: drawn in lane nine, in the fourth of five heats (with only the top four assured of qualifying for the semi-finals), Barr will have Jackson (48.09 this season), and Rasmus Magi from Estonia (who has also run 48.65) for company, leaving little room for error.