McCambridge and O’Rourke bow out

IRELAND’S interest in the world championships in Helsinki ended last night with the elimination of Maria McCambridge (5,000m) and Derval O’Rourke (100m hurdles).

Following a lightning fast first heat won by Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia), the newly crowned 10,000m champion, in 14:50.98 - it was always going to be difficult for Maria McCambridge, who finished 14th in 16:05.44 in her heat.

McCambridge could offer no explanation for her poor performance which was won by another Ethiopian, Meseret Defar, in 15:13.52 from the other Dibaba sister, Ejegayehu, 15:14.33.

The Dubliner was in contention until Isabella Ochichi (Kenya) led them through 3,000m in 9:23.92 when she became detached from the lead group and continued to drift.

“I just don’t know what happened,” she said. “I felt good early on and when it got a bit rough on the inside I moved out to the outside, then I just lost touch.”

The weather, cold and windy throughout the day, turned foul once again in time for the semi-finals of the women’s 100m hurdles and while all the leaders were down on their best times Derval O’Rourke was one of those most affected.

All day the outside lanes, in the shelter of the main stand, were favoured but then the wind changed, swirled around the stadium and drove the torrential rain in several directions.

O’Rourke was caught by one such gust as she came out of the blocks and, as a result, mistimed her run to the first hurdle, clipped it with her lead leg and eventually finished seventh in 13.23 behind Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica who won in 12.65 from Joanna Hayes (USA), 12.76.

“It was raining very, very heavy and when I got into the blocks there was a massive headwind,” the 24 year old Irish record holder said.

“I came out really hard but I tipped my first hurdle with my lead leg and I think I had a vision of me just going down. I just ran a little bit scared for the rest of the race and you can’t really do that at the world championships.

“Everyone was down on their times in those horrendous conditions. It was not a disaster and I won’t be going away from here feeling negative or anything like that. Those conditions were just atrocious tonight.

“It has been a huge step forward for me to get into the semi-finals at the world championships and I think if things had been different and if the conditions had been good ­ it was like the middle of winter back home ­ then I was ready to run a really fast time.”

“I fly to the world student games in two days and I should be one of the favourites. As far as I know the conditions out there are really good and it is really hot. I am just looking forward to going out there because I really think I can run very quick out there.”

Rashid Ramzi (Bahrain), was the favourite to replace Hicham El Guerrouj as 1,500m champion ever since his 3:30.00 run at the Golden Gala in Rome and when he took the lead with 300m remaining in last night’s final he was never going to be caught, winning in 3:37.88.

There was no joy for the Finns in the men’s javelin where they were looking for a medal performance from young Tera Pitkamaki but he had to settle for fourth place. The medals went to Andrus Varnik (Estonia) with a throw of 87.17 with silver going to Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway) and bronze to Sergey Makarov (Russia).

A gruelling two days for the decathletes ended with the gold medal going to Bryan Clay (USA) with a total of 8,732 pts. Roman Sebrle (Czech Republic) was second and Attila Zsivoczky (Hungary) was third.

Olympic champion, Tonique Williams-Darling (Bahamas), sailed to another major title in the women’s 400m which was run in a downpour, despite the conditions, her winning time of 49.55 secs was a seasonal best and close enough to her pb.

Sanya Richards (USA), who won a gold medal in the 4 x 400m relay team in Athens, held the lead into the finishing straight but had to settle for second place in 49.74 with Ana Guevara (Mexico), the defending champion grabbing the bronze.

The women’s long jump title went to 20-year-old Tianna Madison (USA) with a jump of 6.89m. Tatyana Kotova (Russia) finished second and Eunice Barber (USA) third.

Justin Gatlin, put himself in line to become only the second man to record a 100m/200m sprint double when he cruised into the final behind the young Tyson Gay who won their semi-final in 20.27 secs.