Irish stars under starter’s orders

WITH qualifying standards due to be announced in April/May, the build-up to London 2012 has already begun for Irish athletes with the cream of the current crop already in training camps around the world.

Two-time European silver medallist and former world indoor hurdles champion, Derval O’Rourke, was an early arrival at the established training camp at Potchefstroom, South Africa, where she will be joined by her coach, Sean Cahill, later in the month.

Middle distance stars Mary Cullen, Róisín McGettigan, Fionnuala Britton and Deirdre Byrne also travelled to Potchefstroom this week and the news from there is that Britton will run some indoor races in Germany with a view to qualifying for the European indoor championships in Paris the first weekend in March although her emphasis will be on the world cross-country championships in Spain two weeks after that.

The European indoor championships will be the big target for Mary Cullen who won a bronze medal last time around.

Deirdre Byrne, who trains with Fionnuala Britton, will not be racing seriously until the track season and is getting in a block of training in advance of that.

Sprinters Paul Hession and Brona Furlong, who have not raced since the European championships in Barcelona, are rounding off a stint of training at Monte Gordo and both will compete indoors this year.

Two-time European indoor gold medallist, David Gillick, will return to his training base in the US today after spending Christmas at home with his family. Jason Smyth and his coach, Stephen Maguire, arrived there earlier in the week.

“I must say I was very, very impressed with David (Gillick),” Olympic team manager, Patsy McGonagle, said. “He is certainly working to a very well defined plan and he appears to be getting on very well with his new coach.

“While there is plenty time to think about qualification for London 2012 I would see this as being a very big year. I understand the qualifying standards will be issued in April or May so the upcoming track season will be very important, particularly as the Olympics start in July and that will shorten next year’s season.

He stressed the importance of proving fitness in advance of the Olympic Games and ensuring that there are no problems this time around.

“There will be a major emphasis on medical and current fitness pre Games,” he said. “At the Beijing Olympics there were a couple of dodgy situations where people were able to compete but were not 100 per cent fit.

“My own personal point of view is that when a person qualifies for the Olympic Games he or she should be given the benefit of any slight doubt that there might be. You are always going to be kicked — it’s an interminable argument.

Robert Heffernan walked himself into the medal favourites for the London Olympics when he finished fourth in both the 20k and 40k walks at the European championships in Barcelona last summer.

He had trained and competed through those races with a hip and hamstring injury and after taking the month of September off he went back into training.

He has been training in Australia over the past month and the reports from there have been exciting.

He defends his 30k title around the Marina in Cork once the Woodies DIY Championships are rescheduled. They had to be postponed in December on account of the weather.