Derval finishes third, but coach Cahill happy with form

DERVAL O’ROURKE moved a step closer to her target — the European championships in Paris in a month’s time — when she finished third in the 60m hurdles in 8.03 secs at last night’s international indoor meeting in Lievin.

“I’m happy enough with it,” her coach, Sean Cahill, said after watching the race from the trackside. “It showed me that we are pretty much where we thought we were.

“Derval was not very good technically, but she was very strong. Her training has not been as smooth as we would like it to be but it is just a matter of putting it all together and to do that we need to get more races. She needs to get out there and race.

“She is in a number of meets at the moment and we will decide where she goes from here. She will definitely compete in the national championships in Belfast and, the day before that, she will run in Birmingham.”

Ailis McSweeney has much the same schedule, but last night she was left in an impossible situation at the Du Pas-de-Calais when she missed the start and missed a place in the final of the 60m by just two hundredths of a second.

“It was one of those ‘on your marks and go’ starts and, unusually there were a lot of complaints about it,” her coach said.

The Irish team for the European Championships in Paris, March 4-6, will be selected following the Woodies DIY indoor championships at the Odyssey but it is already taking shape.

Finn Valley’s Tori Pena claimed her place when she set a new Irish pole vault record at 4.30m last weekend, bettering her old record of 4.21m on two occasions, clearing 4.30 on her first attempt as well. She made her championship debut in an Irish vest last summer at the European championships in Barcelona and she, too, will compete in the Odyssey Arena.

David McCarthy (West Waterford) who led the Irish team to U23 glory at the European cross-country championships in December, added his name to the list of qualifiers when he finished third in the 3,000m at the Terrier Invitational in Boston in a time of 7:53.33 which was a new PB for him but he will be competing for Providence College in the NCAA indoor championships which clash with the Europeans.

Darren McBrearty (Letterkenny AC) set the fastest time by a European when he won the 800m in 1:47.87 at the indoor meeting in Vienna to qualify. Brian Gregan (Clonliffe Harriers), who competed in Barcelona last year, qualified in his very first race when he won the 400m at the same meet in 46.82 secs.