Safety first as O’Rourke eases into semi-finals

DERVAL O’ROURKE, cautious rather than spectacular, eased her way into the semi-finals of the 100m hurdles at the European championships in Gothenburg with a performance that earned her a centre lane in this evening’s semi-finals — and an outstanding chance of making the final later on where she will be a contender for the bronze medal at least.

From the remote surroundings of Lane 8 she flew out of the blocks and established a qualification position over the first two hurdles, then relaxed to finish second to Aleksandra Antonova in 13.06 secs. She won’t meet the Russian again until the final and at that stage of competition the medals will be up for grabs. Following the performances of Sweden’s Susan Kallur (12.70 secs) and Kirsten Bolm of Germany (12.83 secs), the indications are that they will be contesting the bronze medal with Aurelia Tryianska (Poland) and Glory Alozie of Spain, the defending champion.

O’Rourke has shown she can handle the cut and thrust of championship running.

“I was a bit too relaxed today,” she said after the heat. “I knew the Russian went out hard and there was no point in trying to run her down today.

“The first round is about safety. This is the first time I have come into a championship where I just have to get through the first round safely and then let rip in the semi-final and the final so maybe I was a little bit nervous.

“You take chances in semi-finals and finals — you go that bit lower and step off the hurdles that little bit quicker because you need to but today was about safety.” She said she felt like she was cruising yesterday morning but insisted that she now needs to run 12.7 or 12.6 high.

“Today I got away quick, the first two hurdles were good and after that I just floated,” she said. “I knew the Russian was ahead and I did not try to chase her down.”

She goes in the second of the two semi-finals this evening, at 5.20pm. In Lane 6, she has Susanna Kallur, the gold medal favourite. Kallur is the fastest European this year with 12.52 secs in Rome.

“I actually met her in the warm up today,” O’Rourke said. “She is a real nice girl. But there will be a lot of pressure on her.

“This is a semi-final. The top four will go through and that’s it and then we have the final less than an hour and a half later. We are getting down to the serious business now.”

The night Derval O’Rourke arrived in Gothenburg her friend, Deirdre Ryan, equalled her Irish record at 1.92m to qualify for this evening’s final of the high jump. Sean Cahill is technical coach to both and yesterday O’Rourke said the performance had given them a timely boost.

Last year Ryan missed the season when she had to undergo surgery to remove a piece of bone which became detached from her ankle when she tore tendons. This year, after equalling the old Irish record she set a new one at 1.92 metres and equalled that to get through to the final here.

“She has the talent to compete with the best high jumpers in the world,” Sean Cahill insisted.

“She still has problems with the lower heights and that is a confidence problem. Once she overcomes this you saw what she can do. She was very impressive at 1.90m on her third attempt and then she sailed over 1.92m.”

Aoife Byrne will be hoping to continue progression when she lines up for the semi-finals of the women’s 1,500m this morning.

After making the semi-finals at the World Student Games last year she has gone from strength to strength this season reducing her personal best four times this year from 4:17:38 to 4:12.47. She faces an enormous task in the second semi-final this evening with 12 people faster than her in the line-up and the first four and four fastest losers to qualify.

Róisín McGettigan, who set a new Irish record at 9:32.04 just over two weeks earlier could only manage 9:47.37 for fifth place in her semi-final of the 3,000m steeplechase yesterday and missed out on a place in the final.

Fionnuala Britton also missed out when she finished 11th in her semi-final but had the satisfaction of achieving a new personal best at 9:49.20.

David Campbell led for three quarters of the way in his first round heat of the men’s 800m but eventually finished sixth in 1:48.47.

Thomas Chamney admitted he had run a poor tactical race after he bowed out in fifth place in 1:50.12 in his heat.Today’s Schedule

9.45am: Aoife Byrne in the semi-finals of the Women’s 1,500m.

5.10 pm: Derval O’Rourke in the semi-finals of the 100m hurdles.

5.30pm: Deirdre Ryan in the final of the women’s high jump.

6.50pm: Derval O’Rourke in the final of the 100m hurdles.