PARIS - 29th August 2003, special to Irish Runner.com by Dave Mervyn

When the dust had settled on the Saint-Denis track following the fifth heat of the men's 110m hurdles, Irish champion Peter Coghlan was still coming to terms with the disappointment of seventh place performance in heat two.

The 28-year-old explained, 'I just don't have the rhythm at the moment. My timing's wrong, it's been like that all season and you just can't fake timing over hurdles.'

'It's hard to pin it down more precisely but that's been my whole season. It's one of those things,' said the Irish record holder, 'when it is off, it's well off as everyone could see out there.'

Responding to questions about his condition before the race, he retorted, 'I was very up for it, very focused. It's funny in a way to run such a slow time, but I really feel right now there was not a huge amount more I could have done. Time-wise it seems ridiculous. I feel I could run 13.5 right now but it is kind of hard to figure out where it would come from because, to be honest, I didn't do a lot of things wrong in that race.'

Coghlan did manage to make a solid start from lane seven, with the second quickest reaction time of 0.154 and hopes to hone his technique and timing ahead of next season.

IAAF Paris World Championships