The 24-year-old visually impaired athlete from Derry missed out on the European Championship final as he finished seventh in his semi-final in a time of 10.52sec, which proved well outside the 10.18 he needs for Olympic qualification.

It was a blow for Smyth (pictured top, centre), who looked in good form at the start of the season when he clocked 10.24 in Florida in May and he admitted he was disappointing with his showing in Helsinki.

"I don't really know why, but these two races [at the European Championships] just didn't come together," said Smyth.

"I started better in the semi-final this evening and I thought I'd be running 10.2, 10.3.

"So to go to 10.4, 10.5 is a significant difference and right now I can't really put my finger on it.

"It's a little frustrating because I know I've done all the work and still I believe I am capable of running it [the Olympic qualification time] but it just hasn't gone right.

"I've been back in Europe two weeks now so that's no excuse."


Smyth admitted that his target now is the Irish National Championships on July 7 and 8, which will be his deadline for Olympic qualification.

He said that he might have one more race before the meet in Dublin as he tries desperately to secure his dream of making the Olympics.

"All I can go do is try again in the last few chances I've got which means trying to race somewhere next week and then the national championships next weekend," he said.

"I'll just have to keep racing and keep hoping until that deadline passes."

But regardless of whether Smyth makes the Olympics, he will be defending his T13 100m and 200m titles at the Paralympics after being named in the Irish Paralympic team this week.

Smyth's fellow Paralympian, Oscar Pistorius (pictured above) of South Africa, failed to qualify for the 400m individual event at the 2012 Olympics  last week after his deadline for qualifying passed but he may still go to the Olympics as part of the South African 4x400m relay team before heading to the Paralympics to defend his T44 100m, 200m and 400m titles.

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