Sheehy to skip 200m in bid for 400m title

CIARA SHEEHY may skip the 200 metres in favour of the 400 metres at the All-Ireland indoor championships at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena next weekend, despite three world-class performances at the AAA indoor championships in Sheffield last weekend.

Sheehy and training partner Derval O’Rourke were two of the brightest stars at the meet and will be bidding to add Irish titles to the UK titles.

O’Rourke, a member of the Leevale club from Cork, made history when becoming the first Irish woman to break eight seconds for the 60m hurdles, winning the British title in 7.98 seconds.

“She did it the difficult way,” her coach, Jim Kilty, pointed out. “She was behind coming away from the last hurdle and ran the leader down on the run-in. It was just superb running.

“She is having difficulty with the first hurdle and Sean Cahill has come in to help her with that.

“She is ready to run some world-class races when she has this problem sorted out. I think she is about to break 7.90.”

And she could do it in Belfast when she faces a line-up that will include a number of international guest stars.

Sheehy, one of the athletes dumped from the grants scheme last week, had her greatest day in athletics. She ran 23.34 in the heats of the 200m, 23.41 in the semi-finals and then posted the second fastest Irish time ever at 23.20 in the final.

Unfortunately, the 200m has been dropped from the major championship programmes and will not be run at the world championships in Moscow.

Now the Dublin City Harrier is eyeing the 400m for her ticket to the worlds and has been entered for that event at next weekend’s nationals.

Sheehy is ranked sixth in the world for 200m, while O’Rourke is ranked 10th at 60m hurdles. They are third and fourth, respectively, in Europe.

O’Rourke is Moscow-bound, and so too is David McCarthy, who returned to his best form with a 46.81 run for second place in the 400m.

After a lengthy period of frustration he was showing signs of recovery at the tail end of last season and has now reclaimed his place in the top flight.

He will compete in the 400m in Belfast but there will be no head-to-head with European indoor champion David Gillick, who will compete over 200m, having recorded a new personal best at 21.36 in Sheffield.

Paul McKee, world bronze medallist in Birmingham a few years ago, has pulled out of the national championships with a recurrence of an old injury.

Ailish McSweeney has a world championship qualification from last year and will line up at the weekend alongside Emily Maher in the 60m, with the Kilkenny woman ready to grab qualification after winning the 60m title in 7.40 last weekend.

They will be joined by Anna Boyle.

Others who have qualified include James Nolan, Roisin McGettigan, Maria McCambridge, Mary Cullen and Mark Carroll (from last year), while Alistair Cragg will be the focus over the coming days after pulling up during the 3,000m at the Tyson meet in Boston at the weekend.