Clubmates pay tribute to Derval’s achievement

SHE may have narrowly missed out on a medal but Derval O’Rourke’s clubmates are really proud of her achievement, especially her new Irish record for the women’s 100-metre hurdles.

The 28-year-old athlete will always be a hero to all those at her home club of Leevale Athletic in Cork

Club coach Tony Shine described her performance at the world championships in Berlin as “a fantastic result”.

“It proves once and for all that Derval is a big-time competitor,” he said.

“You have to bear in mind that when she was competing in Sweden three weeks ago she got soaked by the rain and picked up a chest infection. She was then injured for the national championships two weeks ago,” said Mr Shine.

The Ballinlough-born athlete came fourth in Wednesday night’s final, just twelve-hundredths of a second from taking the bronze medal off Jamaica’s D Ennis-London.

“It was a huge achievement to come in fourth in the world, especially when you saw the powerful Americans coming in behind her,” Mr Shine said.

He watched the final at home, but there was a good Leeside contingent in the Berlin stadium egging her on.

John Sheehan, her former sprints coach, was there. So too was Ina Killeen, the club treasurer and Caroline Philpott, who is a member of the club committee.

“I texted Ina to pass on my congratulations to Derval,” said Mr Shine.

Derval’s parents were also in the stadium. Her father, Terry, said they were astounded by her performance.

“She didn’t have a good lead into the championships. She was the only European in the race and one of the German coaches told her beforehand she should be proud to be representing Europe,” Terry said.

Leevale AC is planning to build a new indoor arena in the city, which hopefully will enable the club to nurture the Dervla O’Rourkes and Marcus O’Sullivans of the future.