“You control what you can control and don’t worry about things you can’t control”.

It might be the first rule of sports psychology but it was of little consolation for what happened last weekend.

Sunday’s 3:04.43 was a case of controlling all that could be controlled. It was a fantastic run which belies the time recorded. It was a focused, driven, team performance and despite our best efforts we were undone by what we couldn’t control - The Wind.

400m runners thrive on still days and favour a wind that blows down the back straight. What we got was a wind blowing down the home straight up 5.0 m/s. The 40m plus margin of victory was worthy of a top 16 team in the world. What it left us at the end of the day was an average of 18th position. 1/100th of second behind 17th place and less than 2/10ths of a second behind the crucial 16th spot. The day highlighted the inequity of the current relay qualification system where other teams improved their times in other races with superior competition and more favourable weather conditions.

We would like to thank everyone for their messages of support prior to the qualification attempts.

Brian Gregan equaled the Irish junior 400m record today when he finished third in the 400m in Mannheim, Germany in a time of 46:70.

The record was set back in 2000 by project400’s very own Gordon Kennedy. Gordon and the rest of the project400 team send their congratulations to Brian on his superb achievement. (more…)