Thomas Barr has been forced to withdraw from the World Athletics Championships due to a vomiting bug.
The 25-year-old - one of Ireland's main medal hopes in London - had been scheduled to run in the semi-finals of the 400m hurdles this evening.
Barr said the illness hit him last night.
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.
There had been an element of luck to Barr's automatic qualification for the semi-finals. The Waterford man initially finished fifth in his heat but fastest man in this world this year, Kyron McMaster, who had finished second in Barr's opening race, was disqualified. The result saw Barr progress to the semi-finals, though it's likely he still would have gone through as a fastest loser.
After suffering from minor injury problems this season, Barr had felt himself to be in a good place heading into the World Championships. Prior to last month's National Championships, he said that a solid base of winter training - one far better than the foundation for last year's fourth place at the Olympics - gave him confidence heading to London.
Photo by Ian MacNicol/Sportsfile
