O’Rourke smashes Irish record and sets sights on Gothenburg

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.

It was another astonishing performance by the world indoor 60m hurdles champion who has now proved she can transfer her indoor form on the outdoor circuit.

She was one of four women in the race who competed in Stockholm the previous night and one of those, Nigerian Josephine Onyia, who was behind her in Stockholm, took second place last night.

Victory went to Damu Cherry of the United States in 12.66 secs. She ran 12.44 secs in Lausanne on the night O’Rourke reduced the Irish record to 12.92 secs from the 12.96 she had equalled in Cork.

Onyia, who ran a season best of 12.89 in Spain earlier, improved on that when she finished second in 12.78 while behind O’Rourke, Adrianna Lamalle, the French champion with a best of 12.67, was fourth in 12.88, with another American, Virginia Powell, fifth in 12.94 secs.

“When Derval ran 12.94 secs in Stockholm the previous night I thought it was her best performance of the season,” her coach Jim Kilty insisted. “It was, in fact, better than her 12.92 sec run in Lausanne. “But last night was just unbelievable. She was so slow out of the blocks it was unreal and that left her with a lot of ground to make up.

“If she breaks 12.80 secs I feel certain she will win a medal in Gothenburg.”

“I now need just one more race before Gothenburg,” a delighted O’Rourke said afterwards.

“I think I can break 12.80 secs after tonight’s run which was off a slow start and I will almost certainly now run Nuremburg next Saturday. I will make a definite decision on that in the morning.”

Another interesting feature of last night’s race is the fact that the Cork runner had no European ahead of her. The French champion was fourth and Esen Kizildag of Turkey was sixth in 12.99 secs, Aurelia Trywianska of Poland seventh in 13.07 secs and Johanna Halkoaho of Finland eighth.

Damu Cherry, the winner, fought out the fastest finish of the year with the world champion, fellow American Michelle Perry, in Lausanne on the night Derval O’Rourke broke the national record. That night Perry held on to claim victory in 12.43 secs to 12.44 secs for Cherry.