O’Rourke primed for action
The newly crowned world indoor 60m hurdles champion will be the star attraction at the meet where not so long ago she was one of the basket girls carrying the athletes’ gear, but it became clear on her visit to the track yesterday that it was the positive attitude that typifies her character that salvaged her season.
She had stashed her world championship medal away and got in six weeks of serious training in preparation for the outdoor track when she was faced with a hurdler’s nightmare — a pelvic bone problem that was responding to nothing.
“For seven weeks I could only train and run at 80%. I was getting treatment but when it was suggested that I might skip the season all together I decided to contact Gerard Hartmann,” she recalled. “He got me back training and I have had some really good sessions in the past couple of weeks.”
So good, in fact, that her technical advisor, former national champion Sean Cahill, has predicted that she could break her Irish record today.
“I said nothing to Jim (Kilty). At least one coach won’t be disappointed if I don’t,” she said. “But there are so many factors that come into play. The weather has not been great for the past couple of years.”
Three years ago she set the national record at 12.96 secs and while she has equalled it a couple of times and run wind-assisted under it on four occasions, it remains a definite target for this season.
Today she will be joined on the line by some familiar faces. Sarah Claxton arrives in Cork direct from Malaga where she opened her campaign with a 13.01 sec run for fourth place at the European Cup on Thursday night.
Nadine Faustin-Parker from Haiti, who has been second three times at The Mardyke, said yesterday she feels she can win. She arrived in Cork with a seasonal best of 12.91. Michal Cattaneo from Italy is another notable.
There were anxious moments for the organisers yesterday as they awaited the arrival of Alistair Cragg. The European indoor 3,000m champion is just getting back to full fitness after a bout of flu.
Today’s 3,000m will be an important race for him in the lead-up to next Friday’s Golden League meeting in Paris where he is hoping to get close to 13 minutes in the 5,000m.
“We spoke about it last week during a session and I feel he is good enough to break 13 minutes this year,” his training partner, Dan Lincoln, said.
Lincoln, three times US steeplechase champion, will join him on the line. Before winning his third US title last weekend he highlighted his current wellbeing with a personal best of 3:37 for 1,500m and ran close to the US record for two miles with 8:13. Kevin Sullivan from Canada will have the Canadian record of 7:43 as his target when he lines up.
While some of the world’s greatest athletes have graced the meeting in the past — Yuriy Sedykh and Sergey Litvinov broke the world record for the hammer five times between them exactly 22 years ago this weekend — hardly ever has there been such a depth of talent on parade, with every event featuring world stars.
“What is interesting and a bit exciting is the fact that so many athletes want to get into the BUPA Cork City Sports those days,” Dick Hodgins, who directs the meeting from the position of City Sports Chairman, said.
His relationship with the meet stretches back to 1961, when he won his first Irish title on what was then a grass track. His last national title would come in the marathon in 1975 but he was still competing at The Mardyke.
“If we get the weather this year, this will be the best ever meet at The Mardyke,” he said. “You have top class athletes in every event. In the past the whole meeting would centre around a few events. A lot of the other events were very local.
Last year, the meeting was ranked sixth on the European list — making the top 10 for the first time — and a number of athletes, including the Olympic and world long jump champion Dwight Philips picked up points from it for the world performance lists.
“Last year the budget was around a quarter of a million euro, which sounds a lot for a one-day event but when you put it together — travel, accommodation, prize money — it’s not that much,” Dick Hodgins said.
BUPA Ireland’s sponsorship has driven the meet to new heights over the past six years.
“It has really taken off since they became involved. They gave it the injection of finance that it needed,” Dick Hodgins said. “We still have our local sponsors who sponsor individual events and we ensure that there is no clash of interests.”
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