Injuries mar great weekend for Irish athletes

PAUL HESSION ran another seasonal best for third place in the 200m while two more third places for David Gillick in the 400m and Alistair Cragg in the 3,000m at the Aviva Grand Prix in Crystal Palace underscored a weekend of highs and lows for Ireland’s Beijing-bound athletes.

The lows came in the form of worrying injuries to hammer thrower Eileen O’Keeffe, who had to withdraw from the Morton Memorial Meeting on Friday night with a knee injury, and Derval O’Rourke, who had shown signs of a timely return to form at the national championships a week earlier, suffered a groin injury and was forced to pull out of London when an MRI scan showed a strained groin abductor muscle.

“Obviously it is very worrying at this late stage with the athletes scheduled to leave for the Far East on Friday,” said Olympic team manager Patsy McGonagle. “But Derval is getting the best of treatment and we are all very hopeful.