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Italy's golden summer continues as Thomas Barr bows out

Team Italy have had quite the day at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, with a 100m Olympic gold for the...



Team Italy have had quite the day at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, with a 100m Olympic gold for their men, a 'joint gold' medal in the high jump - as Thomas Barr's Italian dream ended.

The main news line for Irish fans in an Italian sense came in the 400m hurdles semi-final which ended in disappointment for Barr.

He ran a season's best time of 48:26, the second-best ever time of his career, to finish fourth and outside of the qualification places.

Thomas Barr

Team Ireland had appealed the race conduct of his Italian opponent Alessandro Sibilio, who they believed to have engaged in 'hooking' during the race, only for the appeal to fail.

Hooking is the act of athletes dragging their back leg around the hurdle at a lower height than the full height of the hurdle itself.

"That's the end of the road," Barr said to RTÉ Sport after the race.

"I thought when I hit that hurdle 7 that it was going to cost me. I literally felt like I was in personal-best shape.

"I was getting into the blocks, thinking 'yeah, I'm running a PB here and into the final.'

"It cost me a little bit but that's the hurdles. You can win some, you can lose some. There's so many places you can make up time, there's so many places you can lose time.

"Today was just one of those unlucky days."

Italy

Italy now hold the 100m men's final gold after a win by Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who finished with a European record time of 9.8s.

"It's been my dream since I was a child," said Jacobs, born in the United States.

"I need a week or so to understand what has happened. Seeing Gimbo (Tamberi) win the high jump gold fired me up a lot.

"I've won an Olympic gold after Usain Bolt, it's unbelievable. Tonight, staring at the ceiling perhaps I will realise."

Gianmarco Tamberi

Tamberi himself took part in one of the more bizarre spectacles of the games.

He and his Qatari opponent Mutaz Essa Barshim spoke to officials having both cleared a bar of 2.77m, having both failed with 2.79.

Asking the official whether they could share gold rather than decide an outright winner, the official agreed.

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