Chalmers placed third and therefore just outside the two automatic qualifiers in his 400m hurdles semi-final at the ‘Euros’ with an otherwise terrific run, which was confirmed at 48.76sec. after a very tense wait – captured in full close-up by the television cameras. He missed the Paris 2024 standard by just 0.06sec.
The 24-year-old was clearly the fastest non-automatic qualifier to that point at Italy’s Olympic Stadium, meaning with any luck he would scrape into the final and get another shot at the all-important standard.
But the third and final semi brought a barrage of quick times and, after another nervy wait, it was confirmed that both non-automatic qualifier spots had been taken.
The Guernsey star was visibly gutted, being comforted by his father and girlfriend on the sidelines before sharing a ‘thank you’ post to his social media fans, accompanied by a broken heart emoji. He has until the end of this month to produce the standard for Paris.
‘It’s a bizarre situation to have run such an amazing performance, get a PB – which is over two years since he ran a PB – and come away feeling, I’m imagining, pretty devastated,’ Guernsey Athletics development officer Tom Druce said.
‘It’s tough, and it’s a combination of misfortunes.
‘It was such a long wait for the time to come up, so you are like “Is it fast enough? Is it not?”
‘Then you think you’re probably going to get another run tomorrow – and suddenly you’re not.’
The Guernsey star had opened with a 49.71 for third in his heat.
World record-holder Karsten Warholm cruised through to win the first semi in 48.75, with his closest pursuers being in the mid-49s.
A hungry Chalmers was not perturbed by being drawn the outside lane for his semi – he ran his previous PB in the same conditions – and threw down a statement of intent by leading most of the way.
But Estonia’s Rasmus Magi started edging clear on the home straight, before winning in 48.43. Sweden’s Carl Bengtstrom then picked off a tiring Chalmers on the run-in.
Ultimately, his fate was sealed when home prospect Alessandro Sibilio stormed through the final semi in a leading 48.07, with the three athletes behind him also outperforming the front-runners of previous heats.
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