O’Dwyer hoping to jump for joy
Despite the withdrawals of friends Gillian O’Sullivan and Jamie Costin, the 26-year-old Corkman remains focused on his bid to achieve a top 10 finish.
After a nightmare run of injuries, the Togher-born athlete impressed at the World Cup in Naumburg and was just fractionally outside his career best at the Grand Prix in La Coruna.
Now he bids to continue that improvement curve.
“I would say he is in the best shape of his life,” said Irish team manager Michael Quinlan.
“His training has gone remarkably well and he has at last got a long injury-free stretch, which will stand to him.”
Later this evening, Ireland’s newest sensation, Adrian O’Dwyer, will make his Olympic debut in the high jump.
The 20-year-old Kilkenny native has received some good news already this week as the qualification standard for the final had been set at 2.28 - a height he has cleared regularly in competition and in training.
He comes here with a career best of 2.30m from Algiers, where he thrilled the crowd with his antics and he had promised more of the same for tonight when he competes in Group A.
The competition includes Andriy Sokolovskyy (Russia) who is second in the world rankings with a best of 2.35, Gregor Sposob (Poland), 2.34 and Jamie Nieto (USA) 2.33.
“I just can’t wait to get going,” he said.
“Here in the village I want to jump everything I see. I love the weather and I love the whole atmosphere. I just want to jump.”
James Nolan will be hoping for further improvement in an impressive season when he lines up for Heat 1 of the men’s 1,500m.
The first five in each heat and the nine fastest losers go through to Sunday’s semi-final.
He faces a tough task in a field including world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj and Isaac Kiprono Songok (Kenya), who has run 3:30.39 this year.
There was another withdrawal from the Irish team yesterday when discus thrower Nick Sweeney surrendered his hopes of another Olympic appearance.
He injured his knee in training early in the week and yesterday the OCI medical team advised him against competing.
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