Thomas Barr being raised as Olympic hurdler eyes new heights

It is fitting that Thomas Barr's best time came at arguably the high point in his career to date.

A day after winning his 400 metres hurdles semi-final with a national record in Rio at the Olympics in 2016, he gave one of the great Irish track and field performances when he threatened to medal, but was forced to settle for fourth and a second Irish record in 24 hours.

His time of 47.97 would have been good enough to medal at each of the previous three Olympics

His second-fastest time came two years later in Berlin when he raced to bronze in the European Championships, the most recent Irish athletics medal in the event.

Hopes of reaching a second successive Olympic final came unstuck at the seventh hurdle in Tokyo. It was all going to script until his stride pattern was compromised, the impact off the hurdle costing precious time. His time of 48.26 would have been enough to win the final heat, but in the grand scheme of things he was ninth overall, one place outside the final.

Some may feel that, along with some niggly injuries, the best days may be behind the 30-year-old, but the Waterford native is bullish over what he can achieve.

'If I didn't think I could still run faster, I wouldn't still be running.'

Quite simply, he wouldn’t be here if he didn’t think it was possible.

"I really do," he tells RTÉ Sport, "because I'm starting to get older, I'm obviously thinking, 'right where am I at?'

"If I didn't think I could still run faster, I wouldn't still be running. That's the honest truth of it because last year if I'd executed the perfect race, or what I thought was the perfect race in the semi-final in Tokyo, I would have run a PB - and it would have been a big PB of 0.3 or 0.4 of a second.

"I hit hurdle seven and it knocked me