O’Rourke Germany-bound for World championship build-up
Last year she turned up for the European championships with back to back meets in Germany and she will return tomorrow for competitions there on Friday and Sunday.
“They are high class hurdle races and she ran very well there last year — she went into the 12.8’s each time — so she wants to do the same again,” her coach, Jim Kilty, said. “It’s a big meet for her and all I can say is that she is in really, really good shape,” he said.
“She took a battering in that fall at the national championships and she was pretty stiff and sore the next day.”
She was challenging Emily Maher in the final of the women’s 100m when she took a crashing fall and slid several metres along the wet track.
Later she went to the line in defence of her 100m title bandaged on her elbows, knees, side and shoulder.
“When she ran in Sweden the following Wednesday her back was really sore and it was not surprising that she ran badly — 13.3 secs — but she recovered quite quickly,” Jim Kilty said. She ran 12.95 secs the following Saturday but was disappointed with the way the race went for her the following Wednesday night when she was leading until clipping the fourth hurdle.
She will be one of the stars missing when Athletics Ireland formally announce the team for the world championships in Dublin on Friday.
Those missing will also include Eileen O’Keeffe who is in Bangkok for the World Student Games. Her stunning record breaking performance at the national championships that ended up with a massive throw of 73.21 metres has put her among the top throwers in the world and a leading contender for a medal at those Games.
However things were not to her liking when she reached Bangkok where the Irish were amongst the first arrivals. There was no proper throwing circle to practice and facilities were practically non existent.
“It could have been due to the fact that the Irish were the first to arrive,” Kilty, said. “Conditions were pretty primitive, to say the least, and there were no other hammer throwers she could make contact with. She had to use improvised facilities, throwing into a swamp, but since then she has had access to a weights room and there is now a place for her to throw.”
The athletics programme gets under way tomorrow and Cork’s Ailis McSweeney, a silver medallist two years ago in Turkey, will be among the early Irish participants when she goes in the women’s 100m along with Anna Boyle from Dunloy who also goes in the 200m.
The Irish team consists of 68 athletes: two fencers, eight swimmers, four tennis players, 10 track and field competitors, a women’s golf team of three and men’s and women’s football squads.
It was at those games in Sheffield back in 1991 that Sonia O’Sullivan launched her medal winning campaign. Having competed in the European championships in Split the previous year she side-stepped the world championships in Tokyo in 1991 in favour of the World Student Games where she won gold in the 1,500m and silver in the 3,000m. Niall Bruton won a gold medal in the men’s 1,500m and swimmer Gary O’Toole gold in the 200m breaststroke at those Games.
Two years ago in Izmir Ailis McSweeney won a silver medal in the women’s 100m while Derval O’Rourke (100m hurdles), Joelene Byrne (5,000m), Paul Hession (200m) and the women’s 4 x 100m relay team (Derval O’Rourke, Anna Boyle, Aisis McSweeney and Emily Maher) all won bronze medals.
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