Derval joins the golden trail in Zurich

DERVAL O’ROURKE left for Zurich’s Weltklasse yesterday, following a path that has been well worn by the likes of Eamonn Coghlan, Ray Flynn, Marcus O’Sullivan, Frank O’Mara, Mark Carroll and Sonia O’Sullivan.

It will be the European silver medallist’s first experience of Golden League competition as she begins to reap the rewards of her courageous effort at last week’s European Championships in Gothenburg.

The first three in Friday night’s 100m hurdles final will line up at tonight’s extravaganza — labelled the one-day Olympics — with the newly-crowned European champion, Susanna Kallur, and the two silver medallists, Derval O’Rourke and Kirsten Bolm from Germany, listed.

They will be joining the world champion, Michelle Perry, who is also the world leader at 12.43 secs; Damu Cherry, who ran the second fastest time in the world at 12.44 secs behind her in Lausanne; the US champion, Virginia Powell, another US competitor Joanna Hayes and Brigitte Foster from Jamaica. Cherry won in Helsinki in 12.66 secs on the night. Derval O’Rourke set the Irish record at 12.85 secs at a time when the Cork athlete was only getting into the B races or scrapping for the lesser lanes.

She will be sharing the limelight tonight but her coach, Jim Kilty, admitted yesterday they don’t know what to expect performance-wise.

“You will remember that when she prepared for the final in Gothenburg, her calf muscles cramped and she could not run over the first hurdle,” he said. “Apparently that was caused by the hard track which was laid on concrete.

“She ended up with shin splints and we had just a light session over hurdles on Tuesday. She went to the masseur on Wednesday and was advised to take a break from training that day, so really she went away to Zurich this morning without having done any real speed work since Gothenburg.”

She is scheduled to run in Monte Carlo on Sunday and then the Golden League in Brussels next Friday. After that she has Berlin on September 3, Rieti and one or two more meetings.

While she can earn some dollars at those meetings, she insisted that it is not the money she is after at this point in her career. She turned her back on that when she turned down races that she felt did not suit her preparations for the European Championships.

“Right now all I am looking for is consistency,” she said. “I want to run consistent 12.80s and that will give me a platform to build on next year. I want to be able to repeat fast runs. The Olympic gold medal in 2008 is going to be won in 12.38 to 12.44.”

Apart from the races planned over the coming weeks, she is also hoping for a wild card into the Grand Prix final, giving another incentive for her to run fast.