O'Rourke on track

Derval O’Rourke was not fazed by the atrocious weather at tonight’s World Championships as she secured a place in semi-finals of the 110 metres hurdles.

The 24-year-old Irish record holder ran a quickest time of the season of 13.00 seconds to progress as one of the four fastest losers after thunder, lightning and continuous heavy rain had threatened to turn Helsinki’s Olympic stadium into a swimming pool.

Perdita Felicien, the defending champion from Canada, won the heat in 12.77secs.

Paul Hession, meanwhile, made a quick return to the Athletes Village after the 200m second-round heats were rescheduled for Wednesday following the torrential downpour.

The 2003 World Student Games silver-medallist had earlier in the day progressed into the next round after running a heavily wind-assisted 20.40.

His time bettered Paul Brizzel’s national record of 21.54, but with a following wind of 4.3metres-per-second, it cannot be considered for ratification.

Hession’s race saw all eight contestants including himself – he finished last - move into the second round.

The winner was Tyson Gay of the United States, who clocked a wind-assisted 19.99 – the quickest performance of the round.

Apart from rearranging the 200m, championship organisers also announced the qualifying round for the triple jump would also take place tomorrow. The women’s discus final will be held on Thursday.