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.

“But, overall, it was a great weekend for our athletes. Roisin McGettigan had a big win in the steeplechase on Friday night and that puts her right in the mix for the Olympic Games.

“Paul Hession and David Gillick were also in tremendous form on Saturday while Alistair Cragg turned in another superb performance in the 3,000m. ”

Hession was in against the second, third and fourth placed athletes from the final of the 200m the world championships in Osaka. Of those, silver medallist Usain Bolt, raging hot favourite for the gold medal in Beijing, won in 19.76 secs, with the bronze medallist, Wallace Spearmon, second in 20.27 ahead of the Irishman in 20.37.

Rodney Martin, who was fourth in Osaka, finished sixth while Hession claimed another big scalp in Brian Dzingai (Zimbabwe) who finished fourth with Christian Malcolm of Britain fifth.

“The fact that I was so close to Spearmon was very encouraging,” said Hession.

He got off to a perfect start but his momentum carried him off his line at the crown of the bend and that may have cost him the Irish record which he holds at 20.30 secs.

“I have not yet had an opportunity to see a re-run of the race but I know I have a couple of things to tidy up,” he said. “I have to admit it was a superb performance and I felt great. I am very happy. I’s good to have something to work on.

“It was my last race before the Olympics and it is just a great way to be going out to Beijing. It was a great weekend for Irish athletics.”

Gillick enjoyed second place for a brief moment in the finishing straight before ending up third behind his training partner at Loughborough, Martyn Rooney, who broke 45 seconds for the first time with a 44.83 win in the 400m. Tyler Christopher from Canada, who was sixth in the final at the world championships in Osaka, fought back to claim second in 45.29 with Gillick third in 45.35.

Cragg was involved in another thrilling race with the Africans before settling for third place in 7:38.60, marginally outside his seasonal best for 3,000m. For a time it appeared as if he might steal a march before Mike Kigen (Kenya) struggled up to take the lead but then Boniface Kiprop (Uganda) produced a ferocious sprint to win in 7:36.95.

Cragg will put the finishing touches to his Olympic preparations with another 3,000m race in Monaco tomorrow night.