O’Rourke, O’Keeffe set records but team relegated

DERVAL O’ROURKE set another new national under-23 record and continued progress towards world championship and Olympic qualification standard when she finished third in the 100m hurdles in 13.19 seconds at the European Cup match in Finland yesterday.

Despite this performance, a national record in the hammer from Eileen O'Keeffe, and impressive performances from Ciara Sheehy in the 200m and Freda Davoren in the 1,500m, the team were relegated.

O'Rourke was running inside her national record for a third time this season The Cork girl, who has just graduated from UCD, will now take a 10 day break from competition to train for her next outing the BUPA Cork City Sports.

Ciara Sheehy and Freda Davoren will also turn to The Mardyke for their next assignments.

The DSD sprinter, just back from injury, finished fifth in the 200m in 23.60 secs while bad weather and a tactical race put paid to a really fast time for Freda Davoren in the 1,500m where she finished third in 4:13.00.

Eileen O'Keeffe's hammer throw of 61.46m placed her sixth while Anna Boyle ran a career best time of 11.81 secs in the 100m for eighth place.

Gary Ryan and David McCarthy won the 200m and 400m respectively . Rob Connolly won the 3,000m in 8:12.52, Paul Brizzel finished second in the 100m in 10.59 secs, James Nolan was second in the 800m in 1:53.49, Antoine Burke was second in the 400m hurdles in 51.61 and Cathal Lombard was second in the 3,000m in 14:03.49.

Eoin Leen, making his debut at this level, finished fourth in the shot putt with a best throw of 16.33m.

Ireland's men's and women's teams will compete in the same division of the European Cup next season.

At the junior international in Mannheim, Ciaran O'Connell (Glaslough) finished third in the 800m in 1:50.54 with Thomas Chanley (Clonmel) fourth in 1:51.04.

Liam McDermott posted a time of 53.86 in the 400m hurdles, while the national senior record holder, Erin Kinnear, cleared 3.70 in the women's pole vault.

Darragh Graham returned 22.04 in the men's 200m while schools champion, Paul Gill (Carbury) ran 22.36 in the 200m. Catherine Crawford ran a seasonal best of 14.60 in the 100m hurdles.

Olympic 200 metres champion Konstadinos Kederis proved he is in the shape to retain his world title this year. Making a rare outing outside major championships, the Greek sprinter powered around the bend to win in 20.37 secs despite being chased hard by Britain's Christian Malcolm.

France lifted the men's trophy thanks to individual victories for Romain Mesnil in the pole vault, Ladji Doucoure in the 110 metres hurdles and Fouad Chouki in the 3,000m.

Russia dominated the women's competition, amassing 130 points to 103 for second-placed Germany and 102 for France.