O’Rourke overcomes injury in time for Belfast
The Cork-born athlete, who has already posted her A standard for the Olympics Games, won bronze in a time of 8.27 at the AAA Indoor Championships, staged at the Sheffield Arena.
She will renew rivalry with second placed Rachel King and Hady Aron, who finished fourth.
The field will also include Holland’s world ranked hurdler, Judith Bis.
The success of our sprinters in Sheffield has added to the sense of anticipation, especially for the 400m following the gold medal performance of Rob Daly who was chased to the line by fellow Irishman, David McCarthy.
The rematch was confirmed yesterday. “We always knew he could do it but it was a matter of staying injury free,” Paddy Fay, coach to Daly said.
McCarthy’s coach Drew Harrison is looking forward to the rematch.
“David runs every race to win,” he said. “He is a great competitor. This is going to be a really good competition.”
Paul McKee, bronze medallist at the world indoors last year, will run either the 60m or 200m in preference to the 400m. He finished third in Germany the night before last and has already qualified for the world championships.
The selectors could be faced with some big decisions when they meet on Monday to name the team for the world championships.
But all the 400m runners could travel as there is a very strong possibility that Ireland will have a men’s 4 x 400m team and also a women’s team.
The latter will be led by Joanne Cuddihy who was disqualified in the heats in Sheffield last weekend but went on to win a bronze medal in the 200m and will be odds on favourite this weekend.
Both the men’s and women’s 200m races will be exciting although Paul Brizzel, winner of the 200m in Sheffield, is opting for the 60m while Paul Hession is a definite starter.
Ciara Sheehy will be joined in the women’s 200m by Shauna O’Brien, the newly crowned inter-varsities champion who hails from Carrick-on-Suir and Mandy Crowe who hails from Bansha.
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