O'Rourke's Olympics over in a dash

Derval O'Rourke's first appearance at an Olympics Games went doubly quick for the Cork athlete tonight, as she bowed out of the 100m hurdles in her first round heat.

The 23-year-old, troubled by an appendix injury before winning the National Championships late last month, clocked 13.46 seconds from lane five.

Her time was two-tenths outside her season's best of 13.26, set at the Cork City Sports on July 3.

O'Rourke's reaction time was 0.198. American Joanna Hayes, 10th in this year's World Indoors, won the heat in 12.71, the leading first round time.

Realistically with a personal best and national record of 12.96, O'Rourke, ranked seventh-fastest in her heat, would have had to trouble the 13-second barrier to qualify as a fastest loser or as two of the automatic qualifiers from each of the five heats.

The UCD student's time was 29th fastest of the 36 finishers.

Women's 100m hurdles, First round heats:

Heat 4 - (Two to qualify, plus six fastest losers): (1) Joanna Hayes (USA) 12.71Q, (2) Natalya Kresova (Rus) 12.90Q, (3) Aurelia Trywianska (Pol) 13.01, (4) Nicole Ramalalanirina (Fra) 13.07, (5) Priscilla Lopes (Can) 13.08, (6) Sarah Claxton (Gbr) 13.14, (7) Derval O'Rourke (Irl) 13.46, (8) Maria-Joelle Conjungo (Caf) 14.24