Irish blown off course

EILEEN O’KEEFFE failed to make the final of the women’s hammer at the world championships in Helsinki yesterday.

Again the elements wrought havoc with performances and also played a major role in the elimination of 200m runner Paul Hession and high hurdler Peter Coghlan.

For O’Keeffe, however, it was a huge disappointment. Over the past month she has broken her own Irish record twice and her most recent mark of 69.36, set at the national championships, would have guaranteed her a place in the final.

It was not to be. On a treacherous circle she lost her footing and fouled her first throw, sending the hammer crashing into the safety netting.

Her second landed 64.09 metres out, but her third was 63.71, when it would have taken better than 66.73m to get to the final.

“I did not feel nervous but this is my first world championships and I have not experienced anything like this before,” she said.

“The circle was kind of half-wet and half-dry and that did not help,” she said.

“The bend was okay but after 80 metres I almost got knocked out of my lane by a gust of wind,” he said.

“It just suddenly hit me.

“The guys in the outside lanes appeared to be sheltered and they seemed to run a bit better out there.

“I got blown all over the place but Lane 1 is so tight at the best of times.”

He ran strongly in the finishing straight, battling his way through to fifth position in 21.69 seconds.

Hession, whose season was fraught with injury, leaves Helsinki for Izmir tomorrow.

Peter Coghlan’s 110m hurdles run was a disaster - he hit the first hurdle - the first of five - and struggled to the finish in one of his slowest times, 14.81 seconds.

“I had a terrible start,” he said.

“I thought somebody had false started beside me and I didn’t react at all. Then I hit the first one and I was pretty much out of the race straight away.

“The last thing you need when you are not going particularly well is for the wind to hit you but the conditions out there were unbelievable.

“I knocked the last hurdle down but it did not matter at that stage.

“I had shut it down. It is disappointing but it was a strange morning for hurdling.

“Nobody here would have liked the conditions but for somebody like me - not the most powerful guy, who relies a bit more on technique - it was very, very difficult.”