O’Rourke overcomes nerves to retain title

DERVAL O’ROURKE got her season off to a solid start at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast where she retained her indoor 60m hurdles title in 8.18 secs at the Woodies DIY indoor championships of Ireland.

The Leevale woman was having her first race since September – earlier that month she finished fourth in the world championships in Berlin – and she expected rustiness after a calf muscle tear grounded her in January.

“I felt quite anxious for the first two hurdles in the heat and thought I could have run faster if I could only lose the nerves,” she said. “I have to be happy with that after just two or three hurdling sessions and I run 8.18. Last year I opened up with 8.33 having been running of all of January.