O’Rourke has ‘plenty to work on’ after Oslo hurdle hitch
The race was won by world champion, Michelle Perry (USA) in 12.70 secs from the European champion, Susanna Kallur (Sweden) on 12.76 secs, and Delloreen Ennis-London (Jamaica) with a time of 12.78 secs.
Angela Whyte (Canada), who won the race in Stavanger on Wednesday night in which Derval O’Rourke finished third, took fourth place in 12.87 secs.
On what was a perfect night for athletics in the revamped Bislett Stadium, the Irishwoman, who is reigning world indoor 60 hurdles champion, never looked comfortable.
Her cause was not helped when Brigitte Foster-Hylton from Jamaica withdrew at the last minute, leaving the sixth lane vacant and then Angela Whyte false-started to add to the tension.
O’Rourke was already down on the main contenders when they reached the first hurdle and did not succeed in getting any fluency into her hurdling, but she pushed forward to make up some ground between the fifth and sixth hurdles.
From there on it went wrong again, however, and she was left battling it out at the back of the field with Kirsten Bolm, the German with whom she dead-heated for the silver medal at the European championships in Gothenburg last year.
Bolm got the six Golden League points for sixth place in this contest, but there is still a long way to go to the world championships in Osaka, where a place in the final will be O’Rourke’s target.
“We have only done five hurdles sessions up to this point and nothing beyond eight hurdles, so there is plenty to work on,” her coach, Jim Kilty, pointed out. “But she will be disappointed with that run.”
It was a night of changing winds. The women’s 100m hurdles was run into a headwind of .9 metres per second, while at the time of the men’s 200m there was a tail wind of 2.5m, which deprived Paul Hession of an Irish record.
Hession finished fourth in a wind assisted 20.53 secs which was just inside the national record 20.54 secs, set by Paul Brizzel at altitude some years ago.
The race was won by Johan Wissman (Sweden) in 20.32 secs from Brian Dzingai (Zimbabwe), on the same time, with Jaysuma Saidy Ndure (Gambia), in 20.53 — the same time as Hession — just holding off the Irishman.
Hession has a best of 20.56 secs and he is poised to go well inside that. He could break the national record at Cork City Sports in two weeks time as Gary Ryan has set sprint records at The Mardyke in the past.
James Nolan finished ninth in the 1,500m in 3:45.57 and Roisin McGettigan was ninth in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase in 9:40.35.
Anna Boyle showed signs of a return to form when she finished sixth in the “B” 100m in 11.84 secs.
The Bislett Stadium has been the setting for more world records than any other stadium and last night Meseret Defar (Ethiopia) broke the 53rd world record there when she raced to victory in the women’s 5000m in 14:16.63, knocking 7.9 seconds off the old record.
In what was a sensational performance, she was seven seconds inside world record pace when passing 3k in 8:35.76 and 10 seconds inside the pace at 4k in 11:29.44.
A last kilometre of 2:47.20 saw her increase her advantage over Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya who was also inside the old world record (14:24.53) when finishing second in 14:22.51. Another Kenyan, Jepleting Ngetich Priscah finished third in 14:44.51.
The Golden Mile was won by Adil Kaouch Morocco) in 3:51.14 from Kiprono Choge Augustine (Kenya) 3:51.62 and Great Britain’s Andred Baddeley, 3:51.62.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
