O’Rourke pain at hurdles near miss

Derval O’Rourke was left holding back the tears after just missing out on a medal in the 60m hurdles final but even that heartbreak couldn’t take away from an exceptional day’s work by the Irish team on day one of the European indoors in Gothenburg

O’Rourke came fourth with a season’s best of 7.95 seconds behind Turkey’s Nevin Yanit (7.89) and only one-hundredth of a second separated her from a silver and bronze — Alina Talay (Bulgaria) and Veronica Borsi (Italy) both running 7.94 for the minor medals.

“I’ve never been in a major final and not come in the top four,” said a disappointed O’Rourke. “It’s the quickest I’ve ever run since world indoors.”