O’Rourke rewarded with Golden League spot
Within hours of her finishing fourth at the world championships in Berlin on Wednesday night the organisers of the Weltklasse were in touch with her and she jumped at the opportunity.
She has been missing from the Golden Leagues for some two years now but her new Irish record places her among the top 15 in the world and she will be a much sought-after commodity for the remainder of the Grand Prix series and well into next year when she will be gunning for the European title that eluded her in Gothenburg three years ago.
There were no celebrations in Berlin on Wednesday night. “We just sat in the hotel talking along with Paul Hession and his girlfriend,” her coach Sean Cahill said. She returns to Cork today and is scheduled to represent Munster in the shuttle relay at half time in the Cork v Tyrone All-Ireland football semi-final at Croke Park on Sunday.
“After that it’s business as usual,” Sean Cahill said. “With Zurich coming up we need to get back on the track as soon as possible.”
Reflecting on her two-day campaign here in Berlin he admitted it had been a big ask of her to make the final coming out here.
“But she firmly believed she could make the final and once she was believing it that was what mattered,” he said. “I have to admit that I felt she had it in her to make the final but, after all, she was the one doing the running. Once she got out on the track there was precious little I could do. But I always had a good feeling about it.
“Technique was what it was about – I would never doubt her fighting character – but we had to work on the technique, her start and then make sure that she was going to be able to finish off her races.
“I think she did that out here. I know technique is something that is thrown out the window when that gun goes but she certainly kept it together, led for much of the way and then, when we thought it was all over she came back again over the last couple of hurdles. It was exciting stuff.
“I was very impressed when all the European athletes and coaches came to us before the final to wish us well and then they were around us at the hotel again last night congratulating us. That was something very special to me.”
Meanwhile, there was little joy for Thomas Chamney in the first round of the 800m or Eileen O’Keeffe in the qualifying rounds of the women’s hammer yesterday.
Only Betty Heidler (Germany), who set a championships record with her first and only throw of 75.27m, Anita Wlodarczyk (Poland) who threw 74.54m and Jessica Cosby (USA) who threw 72.21m, achieved the 72m qualification standard out of this Group as the Olympic champion, Aksana Miankova (Belarus), was among those who failed to make it through to tomorrow evening’s final.
Eileen O’Keeffe, who finished sixth in the final in Osaka two years ago, got in just one throw – 63.25m – before hanging her second and third in the cage.
“Every major games you see a distance getting through that you probably would throw in your sleep,” she said. “My first throw hit the floor of the circle during two of the turns so that threw me off. I just went for it with my second and third and both hit the cage.
“After the surgery on my knee I am lucky to be back throwing so soon. But I will throw everything into the European championships next year.
Thomas Chamney finished fifth in his heat of the 800m in 1:48.09 – well outside the 1:45 he ran in Oslo earlier in the summer.
“On Monday, after the 1,500m, I went out to do a light session but after two or three of them I just had to stop,” he said.
“It turned out I had a trapped nerve in my back. Yesterday I got physio, did some strides in spikes but it was not right. I knew warming up it was going to affect me. I ran the whole race in fourth gear.”
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