O’Rourke leads Irish in Finland
Ireland, having won Division One status last year, have to pull out all the stops to retain that grading in Finland. Anna Boyle withdrew from the 100m during the week and it is surprising that O’Rourke was not named as the replacement, given her ambitions to run on the flat.
Long jumper Kelly Proper suffered a slight knee injury last week but was scheduled to join the team yesterday. And it will be an important meeting for hammer record holder, Eileen O’Keeffe, who has joined the Kilty group this year. The Kilkenny thrower has been training full time since the beginning of June and went within a couple of centimetres of her Irish record in her first competition of the season. Kilty has high hopes for her in Finland when she will double up in the discus.
“She is going to throw very well this season,” insisted Kilty. “She is getting in some big throws in training. Whether or not she does it in Finland remains to be seen. The problem with the European Cup is that you only have four throws and that puts an extra pressure on you.
“She is lifting heavier than ever and lifting faster than ever and her throws are two to three metres up on last year.
“Now she has a physio, a masseur and a nutritionist working with her and she never had those before. I am coaching her but I have brought in Dave Fagan, a former thrower, to oversee some aspects of her throwing and the plan is to bring in an expert later on to help with her technique.”
On the men’s team, Paul Hession will double up at 100m and 200m and will be joined by David Gillick.
Meanwhile, O’Rourke competes today week in the Cork City Sports meet at the Mardyke and Kilty admits she’s relishing the homecoming.
“We understand the organisers have put quite a good field together and Derval is looking forward to it. She had a very good session this week. She still has some work to do and plenty of time to do it.”
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