O'Rourke eyeing Osaka glory

The hunt for World championship glory is not something which fazes Derval O'Rourke and the Cork native has her feet firmly on the ground as she makes last minute preparations for the competition in Osaka, Japan.

This month's event will mark O'Rourke's second appearance at the World outdoor championships and the 26-year-old is hoping to add to the gold medal she won in the 60 metres hurdles at last year's World indoors.

Her first World Championships, two years ago in Helsinki, saw her falter in the semi-finals but O'Rourke feels the burden has somewhat eased now.

"I think I'm more established now so the pressure is off a little bit because I'm there. I'm not a lane filler, I'm someone who should be genuinely be there and hopefully do well. I'm excited about Osaka and looking forward to it," O'Rourke told breakingnews.ie

"I haven't been to Osaka before and I'm very excited about it. I think it is great to experience new cultures. It's a pretty privileged life that we lead and sometimes we get moany and complacent and forget that, but it's great to be able to say I'm a full-time athlete and this is the highlight of my year."

The Leevale athlete is keen to point to other Irish team members who have just as strong a chance of making their respective finals or medalling in Japan and she believes that this is one of the strongest Irish contingents to head to a World Championships for a long time.

"We have a brilliant team - Paul Hession has been a star this year and has run absolutely superbly, 20.30 seconds for 200 metres is phenomenal. Eileen O'Keeffe has been throwing brilliantly in the hammer at 73 metres. Joanne Cuddihy will be great in the women's 400 metres, then you have Alistar Cragg in the long distance.

"We have a very, very solid team and to have that team and to know that it's a big team effort this year is great," she added.

O'Rourke gave her supporters a fright when she came thumping down at the finish of her 100 metres race at the National Championships in Santry last month, and did admit that her participation in a race in Finland two days later was a risk she should not have taken.

"I fell over at the Nationals but besides that I'm going well. I'm doing my speed work and I am doing my technique stuff and I'm just getting on with it. I just feel quite good for the Worlds and mentally you have to start thinking about it a lot now and I feel prepared and I'm looking forward to it.

"When I started warming up for Finland, the stress factor I had last winter started to hurt me and I was finding it hard to walk properly and I had a lot of cuts and bruises. I should have just not gone there. It was a bit too soon and my body needed more time to recover."

However O'Rourke, who is currently ranked 24th in the world, is keen to take the positives from that Finland trip.

"At the same time, going there and running 13.30 into a head wind is probably better than doing a training session at home. It's just the fact that people see the result and assume you are having a bad time but it was hard to run that race after getting such a big knock two days before hand."

The six-time Irish 100m hurdles champion is in first round action in Osaka on Monday, August 27.