O’Rourke and Hession have golden ambitions

DERVAL O’ROURKE and Paul Hession head to the first Golden League meeting of the year — the Bislett Games in Oslo tonight — hoping for better weather than that which greeted them at an international meeting in Stavanger, Norway on Wednesday night.

Both Irish athletes were given third place as North Sea gales battered the Norwegian coastal city and wrought havoc on times.

The decision was especially hard on O’Rourke. Her 100m race was won by Canada’s world class hurdler, Angela Whyte, in 13.47 secs. However, in what appeared to be a hometown decision, Christina Vukicevic (Norway) was awarded second place (13.64) with O’Rourke ‘given’ third in 13.69 secs.