Derval’s national triumph
The two-time European silver medallist failed to make the final of the 100m hurdles at the Samsung Diamond League after finishing fourth in her heat in a disappointing 13.28 secs. However, yesterday she was sharp and smooth as she coasted to victory in 13.24 secs.
“Crystal Palace was the worst race I’ve ever done at that level. It was such a long walk from the finish line back to my clothes. Everything about it was brutal. I just ran absolutely awful,” she said.
“The only thing we can come up with is that training has gone so well and we have worked so hard, I think it just went way too technical, it went too far. I just completely over thought it.
“I have often gone into championships with very bad things going on and I’ve never shied away from it — I have put myself out there — when you line up in worlds everything is on the line and I am ready to do that now.”
Kate Veale (West Waterford) put the stamp on a memorable season when she set new national youths, junior and under-23 records for the women’s 5k walk in one fell swoop as she retained her women’s 5,000m walk title.
In fact the 17-year-old Dungarvan girl walked 15 seconds faster than her time in Lille when she won Ireland’s first ever world youths gold medal in athletics and a minute and a half faster than her winning time last year.
Her winning time — 21:30.18 — showed that she will soon be ready to threaten the senior record Gillian O’Sullivan set at 20:02.60 at the championships in 2002.
“That’s the last drop of strength she has for the year,” her coach, Olympian Jamie Costin, said. “She did fantastically well there today but Lille was a very tactical race. You have to realise she was in better shape in Lille than she’s in now. She is really tired. That’s her last race of the season. She’ll wander around in the leagues next weekend but she is finished for the season and she is taking a break.
“She will go away on a holiday and enjoy herself. She will do cross-country in the winter.
“But people have to realise she is still only 17 years of age. She is still developing, she is probably not fully grown yet, so she loves running cross-country and the world juniors are not until next July so if you went back training in September and thinking about the world junior championships, it is not going to do you any good.
“She has a long way to go before she is a senior athlete and she may as well enjoy the journey. The sport is there to be enjoyed.
“She won’t make the transition to 20k until she turns senior. You need a certain amount of kilometres in your legs before you can handle 20k. She has done 10k but 20k is a half marathon and if you are talking about any runner that’s running 1,500m or 5,000m on the track and you said we are going to a half marathon in the autumn or going to do a half marathon next year, you’d think that was crazy.”
There was a big upset in the women’s 800m when the raging hot favourite, Ciara Mageean (City of Lisburn) was caught on the line by Siobhan Eviston (Raheny Shamrock) who snatched the title in 2:06.69 with Mageean, who covered the first 400m in a devastating 57 secs, falling over the line in 2:06.85 and Laura Crowe (An Riocht), who had been challenging the European junior silver medallist, third in 2:07.93.
Mageean, however, bounced back to win a tactical 1,500m in 4:16.36 from Stephanie Reilly (Sli Cualann), 4:16.43, and Fionnuala Britton (Kilcoole AC), 4:18.03. Both Reilly and Britton have qualified for next year’s Olympics in the women’s steeplechase.
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