Season’s best for Derval
The former world indoor 60m hurdles champion recorded 8 seconds flat when finishing second to Christine Vukicevic, (7.94), at the indoor meeting in Floro.
O’Rourke missed the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix with a viral infection and coach Sean Cahill, though impressed with the weekend showing, admits they are working against the clock to finalise preparations for the worlds. Cahill said: “We are a little bit tight on time but I was happy with the performance. Once she keeps getting better that’s what I want. Times are not all that relevant at the moment as long as each race gets a bit quicker.
“One thing for sure is that she knows she is in better shape and we are happy with that. We are trying to get in one more race before Doha and her agent, Paul Doyle, is working on that. We have not had much joy in getting races but there are a few possibilities over the coming week. As regards her form it is a slightly different scenario than other years in that she is much stronger and much faster than she has ever been in her life. Basically she is coming out so hard that she finds it difficult to steady herself and she feels she is losing control. We just have to marry her new found strength and speed with her technique.”
He admitted: “If and when she gets it together she will run a really big race. If she gets into a world final I think she is going to be competitive. We had so much up our sleeve coming up to Christmas. She was much further ahead than we had hoped and things were going really well. We were so confident and then she picked up the injury and the virus. Neither of them were terribly serious but the timing made them serious.”
Roseanne Galligan (Newbridge AC) achieved the world indoor qualification standard for the 1500m at the Spanish Championships Saturday with a personal best 4:12.72. She set her previous indoor best at 4:15.13 a few weeks earlier and this time she was well inside the standard of 4.15.00. Also competing at the weekend was David Campbell (St Cocas AC) who finished 7th over 1500m in an impressive 3:39.18 at the Sydney Classic.
Meanwhile, Irish athletes were left struggling at yesterday’s Ras na hEireann Cross Country International at the Battle of the Boyne site near Drogheda. US runner Ben Bruce sprinted home in the men’s senior race over 6,000m in 17.38, eight seconds clear of Poland’s Mariusc Giznski. Another Pole, Artur Kozlowski was third.
John Coghlan, Metropolitan/St Brigid’s AC, was best of a small Irish entry, finishing 7th.
The women’s race over 4km was dominated by Scottish athletes. Elizabeth Curran won in 13.41 from Rosie Smith, 13.56 and Jennifer McLean. Ireland’s Siobhan O’Doherty fourth.
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