O’Keeffe finishes a solid sixth

EILEEN O’KEEFFE ended her world championships adventure in dramatic fashion last evening when finishing sixth in the final of the women’s hammer with a best throw of 70.93 metres.

The placing equalled that of Robert Heffernan in the 20k walk and provides her with a solid launching pad for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

As in the qualifying round when she threw 71.07 metres, her best throw came on her first visit to the circle.

Her later throws were consistent – mostly just short of the 70 metres mark which puts her up among the big hitters – despite the fact that her technique tended to let her down. She clenched her fists in frustration when her second throw landed 64.27 metres out – her worst mark of the competition.

She steadied with a 69.06 and made the second phase which guaranteed her three more throws.

“My first throw took a lot of the pressure off me because I knew that if I threw over 70 metres I would definitely get into the top eight,” she said. “You need to be a little bit nervous but tonight I was an awful lot more relaxed than I thought I would be.”

She got the second series under way with a throw of 66.90 with the hammer fading to the right but she rallied again with superb throws of 69.91 and 69.38 to consolidate her position.

“It feels really good because a few years ago I was looking up at these girls and not close to them at all but now to be finally up over 70 metres – nearly 71 – in a major championship is fantastic,” she said.

“I was pretty consistent on the 70 metre mark – just a few centimetres below it — and that is fairly good for a major championship. To have the one big one – nearly 71 metres – made it a good season.

“I felt today my technique was not 100%. I tended to fall off on delivery which loses a couple of metres. There was plenty of room there for improvement but you live and learn.”

Betty Heidler (Germany), fourth in the Athens Olympics, was a surprise winner with her second throw of 74.76 metres with the former world champion and 2004 Olympic silver medallist, Yipsi Moreno (Cuba), clinching second place with her final throw of 74.74 metres, Wenxiu Zhang (China) third with 74.39 metres, Kamila Skolimowska (Poland), who became the youngest ever Olympic hammer throw champion at the age of 17 in Sydney, fourth with 73.75 metres and Yelena Konevtseva (Russia) fifth, 72.45 metres.

“It has been a magical year for me and it gives me a lot of confidence as well – especially knowing that I can compete with those girls that I have watched for years from a distance – and to be finally there or thereabouts,” O’Keeffe said.

There was a major shock when Alistair Cragg failed to make the 5,000m final after finishing a remote 13th behind Tariku Bekele in a disappointing time of 13:59.45 in his heat.

The Ethiopian, younger brother of Kenenisa Bekele, won in 13:46.42 from Jesus Espana (Spain), 13:46.45 and the newly crowned 1,500m champion, Bernard Lagat (USA), 13:46.57. Afterwards Cragg found it difficult to explain his performance.

“I never got a rhythm going,” he said. “There was a lot of pushing and shoving going on in the race. I went up front to get out of it and I kind of half led and then the next guy comes surging past me and jams on the brakes again. I was just flat tonight. I thought my legs would have responded a lot better. I was in shape to qualify for the final here. I prepared for this one well. It did not go as expected. I could not do what I wanted to do – my body wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do – and I couldn’t do anything about it.”