Ireland's hopes of providing one of the finalists for the men's 1500 metres championship were abruptly ended yesterday after Niall Bruton failed to make any real show in the first of the semi-final races. Bruton, who carried a leg injury into the race, was last of the eleven finishers with a time of 3.47.51 nearly nine seconds adrift of the winner, Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco.
Running at the back of the field almost throughout, after a modest opening lap of 61.08 seconds by the leader, Rudiger Stenzel of Germany, he hit further trouble when he was baulked by the Spaniard, Isaec Viciosa.
Realistically, however, it had little bearing on his performance, for even at that relatively early stage, he was going nowhere and desperately struggling to rediscover the verve of his run of 24 hours earlier.
"When they started smoking it, I just couldn't go," he said, reflecting on his inability to go with the pace when it quickened on the third lap. "If I could have written a script for a tactical race, this would have been it, with a slow 800 metres followed by a kicking finish.
"It should have suited me perfectly but I'm afraid I just wasn't at the races today. I'm very disappointed for my coach, Eamonn Coghlan but in a way, it fits the way my season has gone."
David Matthews is headed for a demanding assignment in the second round of the 800 metres championship this afternoon after qualifying in some style in yesterday's preliminaries.
Among others, he must legislate for the diverse talents of Hezekiel Sepeng, the South African who took the bronze medal at this distance in Atlanta last year, and Cuba's Norberto Tellez who finished immediately behind the South African on that occasion.
Also, there is the mature American, Mark Everett who, if he hasn't always delivered on his pedigree, is still the fastest in the field this season with a time of 1.43.20.
The first three plus the four fastest losers, go through to the semi-finals and after producing probably the best performance of his career yesterday, Matthews is in fear of nobody
"There was a time when I might have been afraid but not any more," he said. "I know that to qualify, I will have to run even faster than today but I think I can make the necessary adjustments.
"I ran to qualify today - not to win the race. It will be the same in the next round when the important thing is to be in the right position at the right time."
His performance yesterday bordered on perfection. Showing none of the inhibitions of previous championship assignments, he strode out fluently after 150 metres to lead the race until Patrick Konchellagh eased past him on the run to the line.
At that point, Matthews was already looking around him, determined not to be upstaged by any late kickers. In the event, there was none and after Konchellah had gone clear, he settled readily for second place.
His time of 1.47.33, just 18 hundredths of a second slower than the Kenyan, was his best of the season and encourages the hope that he can possibly make still further progress.
Mark Mandy produced a clearance of 2.23 metres, his best in a major championship, but still failed to qualify for the final stages of the high jump. It took him into eighth place in Pool A which was headed by Gilmar Mayo of Colombia with 2.28 metres.
It was still a fine performance by the Birmingham-based athlete, however, who was well clear with his early jumps, only to struggle when the lathe went up to 2.25 metres which, ironically, is the height at which he set his Irish record last year.
Sonia O'Sullivan apart, the main Irish interest today will be centred on Susan Smith who opens her challenge for the 400 metres hurdles championship this morning. Smith is still searching for the form which earned her a national record of 54.93 in Atlanta but at least the graph of her season is moving in the right direction.
Running in Linz three weeks ago, she produced her best figures of 1997 and now the hope is that she can improve on her Olympic achievement last summer when she reached the semi-finals.
