Red-hot O’Rourke ready to lay down marker at Morton
Right now the Cork starlet is in brilliant form, according to her coach Jim Kilty, who described last Monday’s training session as her best of the season.
“Look, this girl has come on a ton,” he insisted. “We were very happy, not just with the national record (12.92 secs) in Lausanne but with her overall performance that night. I think she has shown further improvement since then and we are all looking forward to Sunday. After that she will compete in Stockholm and then Helsinki and we would like to have just one more race before the European Championships but, unfortunately, they have pulled the 100m hurdles in London.”
Last year, with her 100m hurdles title safe, she ran the best 100m race of her life to give Anna Boyle a rare fright in that final.
“We have not decided as of yet whether or not she will compete in the 100m this time around. But we will see how things are at the weekend,” her coach said.
While the world indoor 60m hurdles champion could not be happier with her season to date, things have not been quite so straightforward for the two European indoor champions, both of whom missed last year’s championships through injury.
Alistair Cragg had a brilliant start to the season when he ran 13:08 for 5,000m in New York, but he has had difficulty building on that. He opted for the 1,500m at the BUPA Cork City Sports on the advice of his coach and finished third.
His sights were on the 5,000m in Paris the following Friday night but that went pear-shaped on the night and he dropped out with a lap to go.
“I don’t like making excuses,” he pointed out yesterday. “But, to be brutally honest, I should not have competed that night. My blood/sugar levels were all wrong. I think it was something to do with the food I was eating.
“Right now I feel great. My training has gone well and I am really looking forward to the championships. I will run another 1,500m in Crystal Palace next Friday night and I think, after those races, I should be sharp enough for the European Championships. I am strong enough. I just need to sharpen up a bit.”
The opposition this weekend will include the European junior gold medallist, Colin Costello, who joined Cragg at Arkansas since the last time they crossed paths at those championships when Cragg won the title from the young Meathman.
“Colin has changed a lot since then,” Cragg admitted. “He has gone through a rebuilding programme and, while he was always very talented, he is a stronger athlete now.”
It is not definite if James Nolan will compete in this event but Mark Christie will be looking for a qualifying standard for the European Championships and David McCarthy from West Waterford may see it as his opportunity to qualify for the World Junior Championships in Beijing.
David Campbell with a best time of 1:46.99 for 800m had his first bad run of the year in Manchester last weekend and he may want to put that behind him when he faces Dubliner Thomas Chamney who ran 1:46.82 back in the US and the young Kilkenny man, Eoin Everard, 1:49.15, in the 800m.
David Gillick, the European indoor 400m champion, has been below par of late. Early in the year he brought his 200m times down with every outing and, on his second race of the year over 400m, he ran a blistering 45.80 secs but all his recent performances have been outside 46 secs.
The man running into form right now is Paul McKee. The Belfast athlete has put his injury problems behind him and his current wellbeing is reflected in a 46.21 sec 400m and a 21.15 sec 200m in recent weeks. With the defending champion, Tomás Coman, and Rob Daly, who has also qualified for the European Championships injured, David McCarthy with a best of 47.23 this year, and the improving UCC athlete, Brian Murphy (47.13 sec) are set to make this a hot race. McCarthy has a qualifying standard for Gothenburg and Murphy has it within his reach.
Paul Hession from Athenry also has his European Championships time at 200m and has been claiming a lot of big scalps in recent weeks. This weekend he goes head to head with defending champion, Paul Brizzell from Ballymena, and Gary Ryan (Nenagh Olympic), winner of four indoor and seven outdoor titles over the distance. Ryan posted his qualifying standard for Gothenburg in Manchester last weekend but pulled out of the final.
Paul Hession, on current form, will be favourite to claim the title from Paul Brizzel.
Last year Brizzell beat Gary Ryan but the Nenagh man bounced back the following day to win the 100m title. Last weekend both Brizzel and Ryan qualified for the final at the AAA championships. Ryan, who achieved his European championships qualifying standard time in the semi-final, pulled out of the final with a slight hamstring strain while Brizzel had his fastest run in the event.
Paul McKee, a former world indoor bronze medallist, set the national record at 45.58 secs in this event four years ago.
On current form — 46.21 and 21.15 for 200m — McKee can reclaim the trophy dedicated to his grand uncle but European indoor champion, David Gillick, will pose a threat. Brian Murphy, David McCarthy and Antoine Burke will be in contention.
Alistair Cragg, the European indoor 3,000m champion, will be out to reclaim the title he won a couple of years ago. European junior champion, Colin Costello, based alongside Cragg in Arkansas, was runner-up then and will be back along with Mark Christie and young David McCarthy from West Waterford.
Defending champion James Nolan is also likely to be involved.
This will be a packed field. Steeplechaser Roisin McGettigan has run 4:11.71 this season, Aoife Byrne, Linda Byrne, Fionnuala Britton and Orla Drumm have also run personal records in the lead up to the championships while former champion Sinead Delahunty returns and Marie Davenport, who won over 5,000m in Belgium on Wednesday and Mary Cullen could also line up.
The headline act of these championships. Derval O’Rourke, after winning the 60m hurdles title at the world indoor championships, had to delay the start of her outdoor season with an injury but, since it got under way, she has not put her foot wrong. She equalled her Irish record (12.96) in Cork, ran 13.01 in Athens and then broke the record with a 12.92 run in Lausanne.
