O’Rourke nursing injury as Irish athletes go head-to-head
She is currently battling against the injury she picked up when she twisted her ankle crossing the line at the European Under-23 championships when she set a new national 100m hurdles record at 12.96 secs. That qualified her for the world championships and next year’s Olympic Games and she will be busy over the coming days getting ready for Paris.
“She has not been able to train since the European U23s and that’s unfortunate. The next week will be very important for her,” coach Jim Kilty said.
Sonia O’Sullivan will again be the big attraction when she lines up for the women’s 5,000m where she would appear to have a pretty straightforward assignment. And another Cork athlete, Cathal Lombard (Leevale), will be the hot favourite for the men’s 5,000m where Clareman Seamus Power will be a strong contender as well as European U23 champion Robert Connolly (DSD).
The big race of the day will be the head to head between James Nolan and Gareth Turnbull in the men’s 1,500m. Both have achieved the B standard for the world championships and, as only one B standard athlete can travel, the outcome of this confrontation should decide who travels. There is a somewhat unknown quantity in the field in Daniel Caulfield, whose last big assignment in an Irish singlet was the world indoor championships in Lisbon two years ago when he made the semi-finals of the 800m.
He has been struggling with injury recently but showed a fine return to form in the US and is entered for both the 800m and the 1,500m at Santry.
Two of the big guns will be missing from the men’s 400m. Tomas Coman is injured again and Rob Daly pulled a muscle in the Mazda League last weekend. But a powerful field will still face the starter. Paul McKee, bronze medallist in the world indoors, will be tackled by high flying David McCarthy who was fifth in that final in Birmingham when McKee and Jamie Baulch tied for third. Antoine Burke from Limerick has been mixing both 400m and 400m hurdles running for the past year and he reverts to the flat where he will be a big contender. Also in there will be David Gillick (DSD), Paul Oppermann and Eugene Farrell.
Karen Shinkins showed a perfectly timed return to form last week and she will join the European junior silver medallist Joanne Cuddihy in the women’s 400m.
Ciara Sheehy (DCH) will be defending both her 100m and 200m titles over the weekend and current form would indicate it will take a big performance to dethrone her.
Gary Ryan (Nenagh Olympic) competes over 100m and 200m, bidding to dethrone Paul Brizzel in the latter. Last week Ryan put the finishing touches to his preparations with two second places in Finland.
“I just want to go out and run fast this weekend,” Ryan said, “and if that’s good enough then that’s enough. I have the B standard for the world championships and the A standard is pretty stiff at 20.59 but it would be nice to get it. At the moment I’m in the best shape of my life.”
Freda Davoren (UCC) will be all out to impress the selectors over the weekend. She has been desperately close to the qualifying standard for 1,500m and if ever there was a case to send an athlete without achieving the standard then this has to be one, although she can still do it.
The amazing story that is Terry McHugh goes on and on as he bids for his 20th successive national senior javelin title. Michael Allen (Abbey), who has thrown further than him this year, stands in his way.
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