Cuddihy’s campaign plans right on track

JOANNE CUDDIHY has been given the all-clear to compete in the women’s 400m at the Olympic Games and gets her campaign underway on Saturday morning (5.10am Irish time).

The Irish record holder had her final fitness test yesterday morning in Matsue where the team have been acclimatising and came through with flying colours.

“She was paced over 300 metres by Thomas Chamney and she came through it very well,” team manager, Patsy McGonagle, said. “She has been given a clean bill of health.

“While we are quite happy with her level of fitness, it is difficult to play catch-up at this late stage.

“Having said that, I think we can hope for a good performance because she has kept tremendously fit during a traumatic and frustrating time for her.”

Early in the year she suffered a recurrence of an old back injury and just when she was racing fit again, her knee acted up. And if that was not enough, she picked up a calf muscle strain.

“She did very well to stay focused during all of that,” McGonagle said. “She is mentally strong and she kept herself in good physical shape.”

Alistair Cragg has also put his injury problems behind him and has been cleared to compete in the first round heats of the men’s 1,500m on Friday evening (2.10pm Irish Time).

With A standards in three events — 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m — he elected to double-up at 1,500m and 5,000m.

However that plan was thrown up in the air when he pulled out of a 3,000m race in Monaco just days after finishing third in the British Grand Prix in Crystal Palace, built on a fine run in Paris a week earlier.

“He went to Germany for treatment on the troublesome Achilles tendon before joining the remainder of the Irish athletes and he hasn’t looked back since,” the team manager said.

“But we were concerned about the double-up right up to the weekend. After all, the 5,000m would be his primary event and we did not want him to do anything that would jeopardise his chances in that event.

“He is totally recovered now and he will definitely compete in the 1,500m heats on Friday evening. The semi-finals of the 1,500m are scheduled for 9.30pm on Sunday with the final at 10.50pm on Tuesday but, with the 5,000m heats the following morning, he will be cutting it fine if he should make the final of the 1,500m.”

Derval O’Rourke, who has been recovering from a groin injury, has been doing technical work with her coach, Sean Cahill, at the pre-Olympic training camp in Matsue.

“With an injury like that, a sprint hurdler has to be ultra careful,” Patsy McGonagle said. “So she has been limited in what she has been able to do. But the object of the exercise is to get her to the start line healthy for the first round heats of the 100m hurdles next Sunday evening (12.14pm Irish time) and we will achieve that. We have seen her in difficult situations in the past and it always appears to have brought out the best in her.

“She is in super physical condition. She would have been in a much better position if she had those two races in London and Monte Carlo under her belt but she picked up the injury the Tuesday after the national championships and I think she has done very well to get this far.”

World-ranked hammer thrower, Eileen O’Keeffe, picked up a knee injury after the national championships but she has been back in the circle, under the watchful eye of Dave Fagan, for the past week.

“There is a great understanding between them and you can tell things are going well,” McMonagle said.

The qualifying rounds of the women’s hammer take place on Monday morning (2.10am Irish time). His coach, Greg McMillan, flew in from Flagstaff, Arizona, last week to assist Martin Fagan with preparations for the men’s marathon on Sunday week.

Fagan’s participation was in considerable doubt after damaging his pelvis in the Dubai Marathon where he achieved the qualifying standard and matters got more complicated when he went back training too soon.

He won the national 10,000m title on his return to Ireland last month but he pulled out of a road race in Cardiff a week later because he did not want to take any risks.

The Irish athletics team will arrive in Beijing tonight.

Roisin McGettigan and Fionnuala Britton compete in the heats of the women’s 3,000m steeplechase on Friday, while Robert Heffernan has a 9am start (2am Irish time) for the men’s 20k walk on Saturday, with Joanne Cuddihy in action later in the day.