Coach Cahill impressed as O’Rourke now ahead of schedule

DERVAL O’ROURKE’S performance in Chaux du Fonds, Switzerland, on Sunday is all the more impressive considering she is right in the middle of a hard block of training, according to her coach, Sean Cahill.

The European silver medallist finished second in her 100m hurdles race in 12.85 secs. That was comfortably inside the Olympic qualifying standard set at 12.96 secs when finishing second in what was just her third race of the season. “She certainly did the job,” Cahill said. “We probably would have been prepared to give her five or six races to get down to that time.”

Cahill’s wife and fellow coach Terri was trackside to watch her perform and was happy although she watched her hit the fourth hurdle. “Terri was impressed with the way she got it back together,” Sean said. “She straightened up pretty quickly and it did not seem all that bad to the naked eye. But it was only her third race and she was under pressure and when she is under pressure she reverts to what she is good at — toughing it out.

“Her technique is coming around but the big thing is that she is stronger and faster. She would not have run that fast before in just three races. She is in really heavy training and she will have two more weeks of very, very hard training.

“Last year she would not have been able to do this type of training. If we tried to do the same training she would have broken down. It takes the body time to develop. There are no short cuts. When people talk about experience that’s basically what they talk about. She is in a position to train because her body can take it.

“She will have two more weeks of really tough training — we’re not going to change that. She certainly won’t be racing this coming weekend but, in 10 days, there are a couple of races coming up and we will take a little spin to see if we can get six of the 10 hurdles right and the next time eight of the 10.”

Meanwhile Alistair Cragg will line up for the featured Morton Mile when his club, Clonliffe Harriers, stage their 125th anniversary meeting at Santry on Friday night. After posting his Olympic qualifying standard in New York, Cragg had to drop out of the 5,000m at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Lausanne last week suffering from a severe sinus infection.

On Friday night he will line up alongside three Americans, Brandon Methke, who was fifth in the 1,500m at Cork City Sports on Saturday, Jack Bolas, who was ninth, and Craig Millar, as well as James Kaan (Australia) who was 10th in Cork.

Ciaran Ó Lionaird (Leevale), who ended up eighth in Cork after challenging for the lead approaching the bell, will also compete along with John Coghlan, another member of the Irish team that won the European U23 cross-country team title, and they will be joined by Colin Costello the 2005 European junior 1,500m champion.