Irish sprinters strike it rich in Sheffield

IRISH sprinters had a sensational weekend at the British AAA indoor championships and world championships trials in Sheffield when they took eight of the 12 sprint medals.

They took two medals in each of the 200m finals. Paul Brizzel won the men’s with Paul Hession third while Ciara Sheehy retained her 200m title with Joanne Cuddihy third.

And there was another spectacular haul in the final of the men’s 400m where Rob Daly heralded his return to form by winning the gold medal from his Irish team mate, David McCarthy, with Jamie Baulch a remote third.

On Saturday Ailish McSweeney, a sports scholarship student at UCC, took the silver medal in the women’s 60m while yesterday Derval O’Rourke took the bronze medal in the 60m hurdles.

Last evening Jim Kielty, a high performance coach to athletes such as Hession, Sheehy and O’Rourke, predicted more to come: “It is all pretty exciting right now,” he said. “I think the fact that we took eight of the 12 sprint medals from the championships here speaks for itself.”

“Paul Hession ran three pb’s over here and I think that may have taken its toll on him in the final. He was a bit tired going into the race. In comparative terms he is just a beginner.”

Ciara Sheehy went into the final of the women’s 200m as the favourite to retain her title and she did it in style. Drawn in lane 5 she always had the best of the British runners, Joice Meduaku, in her sights and she powered off the final bend in the lead and won in 23.41 seconds to 23.72 seconds.

Joanne Cuddihy was disqualified in the heats of the women’s 400m on Saturday for running outside her lane. Many felt that she was all set to challenge for the gold medal going into the championships so that was a huge disappointment. While it did not fully compensate her, she had the satisfaction of coming away from the 200m final with a bronze medal having arrived late on the scene to snatch third place in 24.25 seconds.

“I was pretty confident I could win the race,” Ciara Sheehy said: “I am looking forward to the Irish championships in Belfast next weekend. Unfortunately it clashes with the international in Birmingham. But the Hungarian championships take place in Budapest the week before the worlds and we are going out for those. It will give us an opportunity to have a run on the track.”

Also looking forward to running in those Hungarian championships is Cork athlete, Derval O’Rourke, now based in Dublin Yesterday she was just edged out of second place in the final of the 60m hurdles by Rachel King. Sarah Claxton, the defending champion, retained her title in 8.10 seconds with King second in 8.24 and O’Rourke third in 8.27.

Irish athletics has been blessed with an infusion of 400m runners in recent years and two of them travelled to Sheffield, Rob Daly, who has been plagued by injury over the past couple of seasons, and David McCarthy, who finished fifth in the final of the world championships last year when his team mate, Paul McKee, and Welshman, Jamie Baulch, tied for third place.

This time it was Rob Daly who stole the limelight by taking the title in spectacular fashion as McCarthy and Baulch battled it out. Earlier performances in their respective semi-finals decided the lane draw and McCarthy went into lane 5 with Daly in 6 and Baulch in 3.

Daly blazed the first lap and led all the way to win in 46.68 secs as McCarthy, after dismissing Baulch, ran on to take second in 47.03 secs.

Daly had planned to go to South Africa next month to train with the Olympics on his mind but now all that has changed with the qualifying standard for the world championships under his belt.

“Now I’ll have to talk about taking in the World Championships,” he said “After running a pb two weeks ago I thought this would be the only place I’d get the qualifier.”

McCarthy had a tough battle with Baulch when they broke lanes with the Welshman giving nothing away.

“After running the long way round the bend,” he said. “I had nothing left down the home straight.”

Both Paul Hession (21.01) and Paul Brizzel (21.18) won their respective semi finals in the men’s 200m to get the prime lanes for the final where the focus was on Tim Abeyie who is coached by Linford Christie.

Abeyie appeared to have the race at his mercy in the finishing straight after overtaking both Irishmen but Brizzel timed his run to perfection and caught the Englishman on the dip to win in 20.98 secs to 21.02 secs with Hession third in 21.13.

Hessian went into the final as the fastest qualifier with a world indoors qualifying standard of 21.01 secs from his semi-final and Maria McCambridge also qualified for the world

Indoor Championships when she finished behind Jo Pavey’s in the women’s 3,000m in a personal best time of 9:02.10. Ailis McSweeney also ran her fastest ever time for 60m when she finished second to Joice Maduka in 7.48 secs with Anna Boyle third in 7.49 secs.