O’Rourke to get season back on track in Athens
The world indoor 60m hurdles champion has missed her planned early season races on account of a bruised bone in her foot but, since given the all-clear by sports injury therapist, Gerard Hartmann, she has been easing her way back into full training.
“From what I have seen since then she is in pretty good shape,” her coach, Sean Cahill, insisted yesterday. “But let’s face it this is a big ask because she has not raced in a month — that’s how long she has been out of action.
“I know she has been working out in the pool and the gym but — at the end of the day — there is no real substitute for hard racing.”
Asked what the chances are of her launching a serious defence of her world title in Valencia the weekend of March 7-9 he said he could guarantee she will be competitive.
“Of course it was very disappointing that she picked up the bruised foot when she did because she was just getting into full stride as it were. But she knows and I know that she did the right thing by taking the amount of time off that Gerard (Hartmann) recommended. I know it was difficult for her.
“We are using the limited time she has left between now and the world championships to race herself into full fitness. She has this race in Athens on Wednesday night where there is a pretty strong field.
“After that she has a race in Leipzig at the weekend where she will have a fast track and another strong field.
Unfortunately she cannot afford the luxury of a week’s break between the races but she accepts that and the big thing in her favour is the fact that she has done this before and come through it with a silver medal at the other side.
“It is all about being positive and Derval is very positive right now. She realises that she did the right thing by resting the injury and she will go to Valencia in top form next month.”
She wants to defend the world title she won in such dramatic fashion in Moscow two years ago when putting a string of national records together.
O’Rourke was on target until a month ago when she bruised a bone in her foot during one of her first serious hurdle sessions.
Hartmann worked on the injury but insisted that she remain off the track until she was fully recovered. On Friday week a scan showed that the damage had cleared up and, after putting her through what he described as a very rigorous test, he gave her the all clear to train and she was hurdling at her base in Bath the following Tuesday.
Meanwhile her Leevale club-mate Ailish McSweeney, who has been Derval’s room-mate on all the big trips, failed by just one hundredth of a second to achieve the qualifying standard at the AAA championships at the weekend when she finished third in the final of the 60 metres.
“And that was after a terrible start,” Sean Cahill who coaches her as well, said. “It is not that her reaction time was bad — in fact her reaction of .129 is really world class — it is just that she is not getting away.
“At one point her start was the problem and we rectified that and I have no hesitation in saying that once she gets her pick-up right she will knock tenths and not just hundredths of a second off her times.
“On Sunday she was three metres down after 15 and still she fought her way back and was just a fraction behind at the line.
“In a race like the 60m there is very little room for error but she is so close to getting it right that we are all very excited about it.
“She also runs in Leipzig at the weekend — and I will be very surprised if she does not get the standard there.”
Hurdler Peter Coghlan, who is also coached by Sean and Terri Cahill, is also close to the world championship standard and would have done it in Budapest but for an achilles tendon niggle at the third hurdle.
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