Waterford athlete Thomas Barr kickstarts his Tokyo Olympics journey tonight, at 3,41AM Irish time.
Barr lines up in lane 7 of heat 3. The 29-year-old Ferrybank AC man, who recently won his 9th national title in a row, competes in the 400-metre hurdles.
Barr has been in good form heading into the Olympics, barring a fall at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo, Norway at the beginning of July.
Barr has the second-fastest time this season of the eight men competing in his heat, but he comes up against Olympic favourite and current world record holder - Norway's Karsten Warholm.
Warholm set the world record three weeks ago with a time of 46.70 seconds, with Barr's personal best at 47.97 - when he finished an agonizing fourth in the final in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Barr will also come up against Italy's Allesandro Sabilio, with the top 4 from each of the five heats progressing to Sunday's semi-finals.
