O’Rourke’s focus turns to technique

Derval O’Rourke had a grin of satisfaction after reclaiming her 60m hurdles title at the Woodies DIY Irish indoor championships at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast yesterday in 8.21 secs — modest by her standards.

She turned down an opportunity to run in Germany over the weekend as her coaching team of Sean and Terri Cahill opted for more relaxed surroundings to fine-tune aspects of her technique.

“My technique was better than it has been — it has been a little bit all over the place — but I’m happy with that,” she said.

“I’m not happy with the time — if I was there would be something wrong with me — but I probably need a bit more pressure to run fast.

“I run in France on Tuesday night, I run in Ghent on Saturday and, hopefully, we’ll find another race because there aren’t a lot of races and just run faster, faster because that’s not fast enough yet.

“Now I just need races to get sharp and get faster. I had some Achilles problems in my first two races but that has totally settled down now. But I need to attack the hurdles and I find it hard to attack in a race where I feel a little bit ahead. I can do the technique and I can run relaxed but you don’t run relaxed in 60m hurdles. I want someone to freak me out and put me under a bit of pressure. It’s going to be pretty quick in Levin on Tuesday night.”

Sarah Lavin (Emerald AC) equalled Derval O’Rourke’s national junior record when she finished second in 8.46 secs with another Limerick athlete, Lily Ann O’Hora (Dooneen AC), third in 8.68 secs.

Robert Heffernan (Togher AC) secured his 14th National indoor 5k walk title and posted his fourth fastest time ever at 19:06.58 despite the fact that it was another solo effort.

“I know last week I was trying to create some interest with the young fellows but I know I am at a totally different level to them so you are trying to create competition in your own head so that you can get up for it,” he said. “But then you get on the start line and look at them and you think this is between you and the clock again.

“In Australia I did a lot of longer stuff. With the build-up to the Olympics I was going to phase out my year so I did a lot of longer walks, concentrated more on technique and did a lot more rhythm stuff and it’s made me more solid. It’s made my technique better and I didn’t rush it as much.

“I came into this off a much bigger strength base. Now I am moving on to more specific stuff and then I’ll race a 20k in four weeks in Lugano. I won’t be 100 per cent for it. I’ll train for Lugano in an altitude tent in Cork and then I’ll go to altitude in Quadix or South Africa, come back for some warm weather training and race the world cup.

“Yesterday I was trying to put a load of pressure on myself and a deliver a performance out of it because everybody’s watching.

“It’s my fourth fastest time over 5k and I think the track was a bit dead. But it was my fastest time since 2008 and I walked 79 minutes for 20k that year. I know I was 15 seconds off that but that’s nothing, it’s only half a second a lap.”

He said he was lucky to have Liam O’Reilly available to him.

“He calls to my house every morning at 8.30, he’ll stretch me and he’ll work on me, we’ll go away then have a coffee before training, and we’ll train and he will work on me again.”

While he claimed his first national indoor 60m hurdles title, there was heartbreak for Ben Reynolds (North Down) who missed the qualifying standard for next month’s world championships in Istanbul by just one hundredth of a second — winning in 7.85 secs from Vilian Papso (Slovakia), 7.87 secs and Irish record holder and former Olympian, Peter Coghlan, who rolled back the years with 8.00 secs for third place.

Daniel Mooney (Letterkenny AC) claimed another title for Theresa McDaid’s group when he won the men’s 1,500m in 3:52.83 and he was followed across the line by another member of that group, Ruairi Finnegan, who won a gold medal at last year’s European Youth Olympics.

Orla Drumm (UCC AC) won an exciting duel with Sara Louise Treacy (Moynalvey AC) to claim the women’s 1,500m title — her first national senior title since she won the outdoor 800m five years ago.

A week earlier Ciara Everard (UCD AC) and Laura Crowe (An Riocht AC) fought out a thrilling 800m in Nenagh and they crossed paths again yesterday with victory again going to Everard in 2:07.34 to 2:07.62 for the Kerry athlete.