Flying finish but shaky start costs Derval dearly

SHE may still have to thrill the fans with a win at The Mardyke, but at least they could marvel at the way Derval O’Rourke finished the 100m hurdles at Cork City Sports on Saturday.

If only her start had matched her finish, the former world indoor champion and European silver medallist would surely have secured that long overdue win on her home turf.

After an horrendous start, the Leevale star was left chasing down the stylish Jamaican, Andrea Bliss, but the finish line came just that bit too soon, with Bliss winning in 12.96 secs and O’Rourke second in 13 secs. However, she beat Polish girl, Aurelia Tryianska (13.01 secs) for the first time this season.

“It was such a horrendous start that I just spent the whole race chasing them but I thought I chased very well, but, in the end, I ran out of space,” Derval said.

“I think I surprised myself with how I can make massive mistakes and still run okay. Technically, I am probably not fantastic because I am so much stronger; I am finding it hard to lean into the hurdles and I have been trying to do that. The first hurdle was really bad today.

“Having made some mistakes, 13 seconds was good, obviously I would have preferred to have won the race in my home town but I’ll get over that.”

Her form this season has been up and down but she is not despondent: “If I ran very quick right now I would not be at all surprised because I feel I am quite close,” she said. “I need to combine my new strength with speed and get over the hurdles efficiently.”

Derval has made several career changes over the past year and admits she has yet to put all the pieces in place to get that performance which could see her lining up for the final of the women’s sprint hurdles in Beijing next month.

“I am looking forward to the Olympics now because different people are getting injured and the whole thing is starting to open up. The women’s hurdles are not going to be as straightforward as people might have thought they would earlier this season.

“I am way happier than I was this time last year. I really enjoyed that run out there today. I know I am in very good shape. I just need to relax. It’s as if I have made the cake and I just need to put the icing on it. Everything is done. I could not have trained harder — I could not have done more — so I just need to put it all together.”

With the Olympics looming she will train right through next weekend’s national championships and then start plugging for a lane in one of the major meets leading up to the Olympics.

“I will be hoping to get a lane in either Stockholm or London — I would prefer London because I have never done it,” she said.

Her coach, Sean Cahill, pulled no punches, describing her start on Saturday as disastrous.

“It is something we need to work on,” he said. “Everything else is good and she is 25% stronger than ever before and that includes when she won the world indoor title and the silver medal at the European championship.

“Today she just had a bad start. She was upright too soon and that left her reaching for the first hurdle and then trying to steady her self for the second. That was never going to work out.”

Sean’s wife, Terri (nee Horgan) was in the stand to watch young Kelly Proper go to within two centimetres of Terri’s national long jump record, set at 6.48m in Brussels in 1992, with a wind-assisted 6.46m securing second place behind Teresa Dobijia (Poland), 6.56m. A 2.2m following wind meant that the distance would not qualify as a record but she still broke the under-23 record with her first jump of 6.38m who launched the best series of her career to date.

“My first jump I got in a good 6.38m and the wind was legal,” she said. “My second one I jumped 6.46m but the wind reading was 2.2 and made just slightly over the legal limit (2.00).

“I have the national senior championships next weekend and who knows what will happen? Everything is going great at the moment and I hope to get the record by the end of the season.”