Hession looking to kick on
The Athenry sprinter has not been beaten for the past three years in Cork and he insists that this is a record he intends to defend with all his might against the powerful challenge of Brendan Christian (Antigua & Barbuda).
He has been sparring with Christian over the past couple of seasons when there has been little between the pair on the world circuit. Christian, a graduate of the University of Texas, moved to the US when he was three years of age. His father, Donald, competed as a cyclist at the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976 but the younger Christian embarked a different path that took him to a total of eight national records over 100m and 200m. Hession holds the national records at 10.18 secs for 100m and 20.30 secs for 200m while Christian has recently recorded times of 10.20 and 20.26.
He made the quarter finals of the 200m at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and, like Hession, made the semi-finals, in Beijing last year when the Irishman was desperately unlucky not to get into the final after winning his quarter final in emphatic fashion.
Those Games established Hession among the top sprinters in the world and the fact that he is building on that was reflected in three early season wins over 200m and while he regards Ostrava as the most exciting of those, he is looking to Cork to launch the next phase of his season.
“Cork is a vital point in my build up to the world championships in Berlin,” he said. “Cork is where we get down to the real nitty-gritty. It will the first race in the next phase of the season.”
When he arrived in Cork from his base in Edinburgh yesterday the first thing he did was check the wind.
“I would have preferred a south-west or, better still, a westerly wind,” he said.
Another with his eye on the weather was high jumper, Jamie Nieto, who set a meet record at 2.30m last year. That was the qualifying standard for the Olympics but three other Americans had already qualified ahead of him but he has his sights on London 2012.
“I am praying that I am able to be competitive and so far I am doing all right,” he said. “At 35 I would not be the oldest there.
“Missing Beijing was very disappointing. Things like that happen. All you can do is just try your best and fight your hardest to try to win your battles. At the end of the day it was basically my fault. I did not jump the standard in time. I just thank God that I was able to make an Olympic team already but it would have been nice to have been in Beijing as well.”
He has some interesting opponents this afternoon including Mikael Hanany, a Frenchman who cleared 2.32m to win the US collegiate title, Grzegorz Sposob from Poland and Dutchman, Martijn Nujiens.
But the return of Irish record holder, Adrian O’Dwyer, will attract a lot of attention. He has been out of the loop since the Athens Olympics.
In the women’s high jump Dubliner Deirdre Ryan will be looking for the indoor form that saw her set a new national record at 1.93m when she takes on Irina Kovalenko (Ukraine) and Karolina Gronah and Karolina Blazeg, both from Poland.
Roisín McGettigan who made final of the women’s steeplechase at last year’s Olympic Games reverts to the flat to contest the women’s 1,500m and this could be the race of the meeting involving last year’s winner, Oleysa Tyurina (Russia), Benita Johnson (Australia) who has twice won the 3,000m at The Mardyke, Sally Kipyego (Kenya), two talented Canadians, Jennifer Kemp and Nicole Edwards and Americans Dacia Perkins and Lauren Hagans.
The absence of injured Derval O’Rourke from the line-up is a huge disappointment for fans but there still should be an exciting 100m hurdles race in which last year’s winner, Andrea Bliss from Jamaica, goes head to head with Sarah Claxton from Britain who won in 2006 and 2007 with the former US champion and World Championship finalist, Jenny Adams from USA and African champion, Fatima Fofanah also included.
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