By Tom Degun

July 27 - Ireland's visually impaired sprinter Jason Smyth celebrated a double victory as he became not only the first Paralympian ever to compete at the European Athletics Championships but also qualified for the 100 metres semi-finals at the prestigious event which started in Barcelona today.


The 23-year-old from Derry, who aiming to compete at both the Olympics and Paralympics in London in 2012, qualified for tomorrow’s semi-finals after finishing 14th with a time of 10.43sec in his heat at the Olympic Stadium.

Smyth was in the toughest heat of the day as he faced the only white athlete to break the ten second barrier Christophe Lemaitre of France as well as Britain’s Mark Lewis-Francis, a member of Britain's 2004 Olympic gold medal winning 4x100m relay team.

Lemaitre, who set a national record of 9.98 at the French Championships earlier this month, won the heat in a time of 10.19  followed by Lewis-Francis 10.23 in while Smyth finished in fourth place.

Smyth was slightly outside his personal best of 10.32 but the double Beijing 2008 Paralympic Champion admitted that he was delighted to qualify for the semi-final and to take part against able bodied competitors.

He said: "I should be here, competing in major championships, training with these guys, competing with these guys.

"When you come here and compete against guys who’ve run 9.9, you’re worried about getting destroyed.

"In the Paralympics, you’re number one and expected to win but here the competition is a lot harder and you get away with very little.

"But it does give you confidence competing against athletes of this quality and competing well. I definitely believe I belong here with these guys."

Smyth, who trains in Florida at the base used by United States former world champion Tyson Gay, added that he would love to reach the final but admitted that he thought it would be unlikely.

He said: "I wouldn’t want to say yes.

"It’s a very outside chance but you never know what can happen but I’ll see if I can step up another level and compete."

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