O’Rourke targets Leevale meet

DERVAL O’ROURKE will be one of the stars in action when her club, Leevale AC, stages its Annual Sports at the CIT track, Bishopstown, on April 18.

This will be O’Rourke’s first competitive appearance in her native city since finishing fourth in the world championships in Berlin last year but, this time around, the 100m sprint rather than the 100m hurdles will be her target.

The main reason for her visit to Cork that weekend will be the relay squad sessions being held by her former coach, John Sheehan, who is confident that she will be part of Ireland’s women’s 4 x 100m relay team in next summer’s European championships in Barcelona and then in the London Olympics in 2012.

“We have our strongest ever women’s 4x100m relay squad,” he insisted. “We have an excellent chance of running the qualifying time of 44.50 secs and getting to the European championships. We will send a team to Geneva to try for the time and then we have the European team event – formerly the Europa Cup.”

Derval O’Rourke is stronger and faster than ever over 100m and she is joined by her Leevale training partner and national champion Ailis McSweeney, Claire Brady from Celbridge who represented Ireland at the recent world indoor championships in Doha, long jump record holder, Kelly Proper and her Ferrybank clubmate, Niamh Whelan, and Amy Foster who is looking for a Commonwealth Games qualifying standard at the moment.

“We have brought in Terri Cahill to help with the preparation of the squad,” John Sheehan said. “She already coaches Derval O’Rourke and Ailis McSweeney and she was delighted to help out.”

Meanwhile, Joanne Cuddihy (KCH AC) recorded another solid performance in the 400m, winning the Athletics New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Christchurch in 52.84 seconds from Louise Jones in 55.51. This improves on the 52.95 she set earlier in the month to finish third at the Melbourne Classic, Australia.

Ireland’s top juvenile athletes were also in action at the Woodie’s DIY Juvenile Indoor championships at Nenagh over the weekend when Caoimhe King (Westport) set another Irish junior triple jump record at 12.29m.

In the boys Uder-15 shot John Kelly (Finn Valley AC) broke the record jointly held by Jim Healy and Tom Whelan with a throw of 15.56m which was almost two metres better than the old mark. The sprint hurdles for Under-13 boys and girls saw two more records change hands with Aideen Kane (St. Killian’s AC) winning the girls’ race in 9.87 secs and Ryan Murray (Bree) winning the boys’ race in 9.78.

Sarah McCarthy (Fingallians) set a new girls’ Under-16 long jump record at 5.74m while Aisling Croke (Dooneen AC) set a new championship record at 1.73 m in the girls under-16 high jump to better the old mark set by senior record holder, Deirdre Byrne, at 1.72m back in 1997.

Bord Gais Energy, sponsors of the Cork City Marathon, will hold a Free Seminar tomorrow night from 7-9pm in The River Lee Hotel (formerly Jury’s), Western Rd, for all the athletes entered to date. Canice Kennedy, Sports Psychologist, will deal with Mental Preparation for Running Marathons; Mark McManus, Strength and Conditioning Coach, will deal with Planning your Fluid Intake for a Marathon and Declan O’Sullivan, Chartered Physiotherapist, will cover Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation.