Derval ‘over the moon’ as Osaka beckons
She was over the moon last night as she prepared to return to Dublin to pack her bags for Osaka.
It was her third race in Germany in two days. On Friday night she equalled her seasonal best time when she was runner-up to Harper in 12.98 secs in her heat at Leverkusen before again finishing second to the 23 year old American in 12.97 secs in the final.
Unfortunately there was a huge delay when she had to line up for a long time with 14 other winners of major medals as they were introduced to the crowd. This was 50 minutes before the heats of her event.
When she got back to the warm-up area she could only get one run over one hurdle and then when she returned to the stadium the men’s hurdles were still out on the track so she could again have just one run over the first hurdle before her race.
She finished a close second in the heat to another American Kelly Walls – 13.05 to 13.06.
Then she challenged Harper all the way in the final which the American eventually won in 12.66 secs with the Polish champion, Aurelia Trywianska, who was fifth in the 2003 world championships, third in 13.01 secs and Walls fourth.
Meanwhile Ireland had two representatives on the track at the World University Games in Bangkok yesterday in the final of the women’s 1500m; Wicklow’s Deirdre Byrne, and Orla Drumm from Limerick. Byrne ran the better taking eighth place with Orla Drumm 10th.
Colin O’Brien’s performance in the third round of the men’s singles in tennis was also a highlight. Despite a spirited performance, O’Brien, from Malahide lost out by two sets to one (7-6, 4-6, 0-6) to the fifth seed Jan Stancik of Slovakia
Later, in the rain-delayed 1500m on a saturated track Byrne, who has just graduated from California State University, and Drumm who is in her final year of Medicine in UCC both started brightly. The pair was positioned towards the back of the bunch of 11 athletes but all were tightly grouped. It was after 700m that the Ukrainian, Holovchenko pushed on and a leading quartet emerged with Byrne close behind in fifth.
Byrne came in eighth in a time of 4:16.58 with Drumm finishing tenth in 4:22.78.
In the pool, Ireland had three swimmers racing. University of Ulster Jordanstown student Melanie Nocher fared best placing fifth in her heat of the 100m backstroke; 27th overall in a time of 1:05.16. Florry O’Connell was seventh in his heat of the 100m butterfly in 58.45, Kevin Stacey was 27th overall in the 400m freestyle heats in 4:05.34 and Sharon Coady was seventh in her heat of the 200m freestyle.
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