DERVAL O’ROURKE is safely through to today’s semi-finals of the women’s 100m hurdles at the world championships in Osaka (11.35am Irish time).

European silver medallist Derval O’Rourke survived soaring temperatures to come through her women‘s 100 metres hurdles heat at the World Championships in Osaka this morning.

WITH the Olympic Games just around the corner, the world championships, which get under way in Osaka today, has been described as a ‘dress rehearsal’ for Beijing by Patsy McGonagle, Athletics Ireland’s first full-time senior team manager.

DERVAL O’ROURKE passed a major milestone in her build-up to the World Championships when she broke 13 seconds for the first time this season at last night’s IAAF Grand Prix meeting in Lausanne.

AFTER a weekend that has given much promise for the rest of the season, Derval O’Rourke will be back among the best 100m hurdlers in the world at the Grand Prix 1 meeting in Lausanne tonight.

DERVAL O’ROURKE rediscovered her winning form in the women’s 100m hurdles while David Gillick put the memories of his false start at The Mardyke behind him with an emphatic victory in the men’s 400m at the Honved International in Budapest last night.

DERVAL O’ROURKE finished last of the seven competitors in her Golden League 100m hurdles race at the Bislett Games in Oslo last night, in a time of 13.19 secs.

DERVAL O’ROURKE and Paul Hession head to the first Golden League meeting of the year — the Bislett Games in Oslo tonight — hoping for better weather than that which greeted them at an international meeting in Stavanger, Norway on Wednesday night.

Derval O'Rourke struggled to seventh in the 100 metres hurdles at the Weltklasse/IAAF Gold League meeting in Zurich tonight.

DERVAL O’ROURKE left for Zurich’s Weltklasse yesterday, following a path that has been well worn by the likes of Eamonn Coghlan, Ray Flynn, Marcus O’Sullivan, Frank O’Mara, Mark Carroll and Sonia O’Sullivan.

DERVAL O’ROURKE put the perfect finishing touch yesterday in Nuremberg to her preparations for next week’s European championships in Gothenburg when she ran close to the new national record she set at 12.85 last week in both the heats and the final of the women’s 100m hurdles.

DERVAL O’ROURKE turned in a superb performance to smash the Irish record for the 100m hurdles with a 12.85 sec run for third place at last night’s GE Money Grand Prix in Helsinki.

DERVAL O’ROURKE is well on course for Gothenburg, as evidenced by her third place in a strong field at the DN Galen in Stockholm last night.

Cork hurdler Derval O'Rourke continued her preparations for next month's European Championships by almost nabbing another national record tonight.

DERVAL O’ROURKE broke her national 100m hurdles record with a 12.92 secs run for fourth place at last night’s Grand Prix meeting in Lausanne with a promise of better to come at Friday night’s Golden Gala meeting in Rome.

JUSTIN GATLIN became only the second man in World Championship history to complete the 100m/200m sprint double in Helsinki last night when he outgunned the young pretenders to add the 200m title to the 100m crown he won on Sunday.