SARAH LAVIN MATCHED the second-fastest run of her career in the Olympic 100m hurdles heats on Saturday morning.
But the Limerick woman’s time of 13.16 seconds wasn’t enough for a place in Sunday’s semi-finals.
Lavin finished seventh behind world record holder Kendra Harrison of the USA who comfortably won the heat in 12.74 seconds.
Although Lavin’s time was more than two-tenths of a second slower than the personal best which she ran in Madrid last month, it equals her next-best time over the distance.
“I never got going,” a disappointed Lavin told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
“It is my second-fastest time ever but looking back on the race briefly there, I never got going out of the blocks. I was running someone else’s race for the whole thing.
“You want to come here and you want to run your best time. I’m capable of being in the semi-finals. I don’t think I’m capable of being in the final right now.”
She added: “That being said, I wasn’t here five years ago. I’ll be here in three years’ time hopefully again and obviously want to go further than the heats.”