Derval trained through the pain for the world championships

DERVAL O’ROURKE did sprint training with Ciara Sheehy yesterday as she put the finishing touches to her preparations for the world championships and there was no one happier.

“I must admit two weeks ago I was thinking about pulling out,” she said. “But I talked it over with my coach, Jim Kilty, and we decided that since I had run the A standard I needed to go.”

Since then it has been a race against time but when she got back hurdling last week she knew she was on course for Paris and the biggest assignment of her career to date.

“When I hurdled on the ankle a week ago there was quite a bit of pain. Then I had pain for half a session but now there is no pain while I am running and if there is a little bit of pain afterwards I can deal with that,” she said.

“I am told it could have been sore for up to three months. Now I am four and a half weeks [back at training] and I am doing well. I am very happy.”

At least the ankle injury was the legacy of the greatest run of her life. That was at the European under-23 championships in Bydgoszcz where she ran a new national senior record at 12.96 secs which gave her the A standard for next year’s Olympic Games as well as the world championships.

Crossing the line she turned on her ankle and inflicted quite an amount of damage. In fact her participation in Paris was in jeopardy for some time.

“The swelling was massive,” she recalled. “But I kept training. I had three weeks of just working out on the bike and in the gym doing upper body weights. But it was frustrating. Leading up to a big event every athlete wants to be out there on the track.

“But I’m the eternal optimist. I had done the A standard, it was the year before the Olympics, so I was going to give it a go.

“If things did not go quite as well as I hoped they would then the year would not be a disaster. I mean I have broken the Irish record, indoors and outdoors, and I have the qualifying standard for the Olympics.

“I was expecting to be chasing that standard between now and the end of June. Now I can just go ahead and get ready for the Olympics. That was something I did not expect.

“But all year I was running PB’s and I knew that if it came right one day I could run really fast, and thankfully it did. It came together at the right time.”

For the first time this year she will have Jim Kilty with her when she warms up for the first round heats on Monday morning and that means a lot to her under the present circumstances.

The quarter-finals take place that evening and the semi-finals are on Tuesday.

One of her training partners, Paul Opperman, will be in Paris as part of the men’s 4 x 400m relay squad. This will be his first time in an Irish singlet since the Sydney Olympics. Since then he has been plagued by injury.

Her regular training partner, Ciara Sheehy, competes in both the 100m and 200m in Frieburg on Saturday. She ran a PB for the 100m when retaining both sprint titles at the national championships.

“She is fortunate that Ailis McSweeney from Leevale is running very well at the moment and pushing her in the 100m but she really does not have anyone pushing her in the 200m,” Jim Kilty said.

“The meeting in Germany is very important from that point of view.”

The team departs for Paris today.