O’Rourke and McSweeney primed for Paris

DERVAL O’ROURKE and Leevale clubmate Ailis McSweeney were two very determined ladies walking out of Santry Stadium on Tuesday night, according to coach Sean Cahill.

The pair had just finished their final training session before the European indoor championships, which get under way in Paris tomorrow morning, and for O’Rourke it was also the completion of her recuperation.

She admitted that her preparations have not gone as smoothly as she would have liked but she aims to put all that behind her.

“I’m really looking forward to Paris, as I do all major championships,” she said. “I haven’t managed to complete the full indoor season but when I have raced I have felt good. I’ll be the only one in the field who hasn’t had plenty of races this indoor season so I’m going to have to work really hard to do well.

“Over the season I have been keeping an eye on everyone and their times. (Norway’s Christina) Vukicevic and (Germany’s Carolin) Nytra have been running really well this season so they will definitely be up there along with a few others. However, I will concentrate on my own race and hopefully that will get me through the rounds and we can go from there then.”

The teak tough Cork woman missed almost two weeks’ training with what she described as a “nuisance injury” but Cahill confirmed she has had come through three tough training sessions pain free.

“She is in good shape,” he said. “No injury issues whatsoever since last week so everything is good and we are going to Paris in high spirits.

“Having said that, I feel a bit like the horse trainer, Noel Meade. When you would ask him what the story was he would say, ‘well lads we are more hopeful than confident’, and I suppose that kind of sums it up.

“But I have to admit there is a degree of confidence. Derv has had a terrible preparation but she is what she is and if anybody can do it she can do it. She is in great spirits and looking forward to the championships.”

“When we started back training on Monday of last week the doctors had given us a schedule and we stuck to it. They told us what would happen and everything they said happened. When they said there would be no pain, there was no pain and when they said it would get a bit tight it got a bit tight.

“Confidence spreads. I don’t think the injury will be an issue. If it was I would not have let her go to the European championships.

“Like I said, the only worry is 12 days of no running. That is a problem. But, on the positive side, she will be fresh.

And the same can be said of her training partner, McSweeney, who posted her qualifying standard with a 7.34sec 60m run in January and, the day after she finished a course of antibiotics for an ear infection, underscored that form when she won the national indoor title in another pb of 7.32secs at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast.

That time was just two-hundredths of a second off the Irish record and her coach said she will have to break the record to get into the final in Paris.

“Ailis is in really good form again – they were both in great form this evening,” he said. “I think they feed off each other and they can’t wait to get out. To make the final she is going to have to break the Irish record. If things go her way and if she can run to her potential we feel that she will do that.”

Close friends, when O’Rourke and McSweeney went to the World Student Games together in 2005 they both medalled. McSweeney won silver in the 100m and O’Rourke bronze in the 100m hurdles.