McGettigan: I’ll pick up the pieces and come back stronger

RÓISIN McGETTIGAN promised a lot going into last night’s final of the women’s 3,000m steeplechase after her fine run in Friday’s heats but she finished last in a sensational race which saw Guinara Galkina-Samitova (Russia) take the gold medal in a new world record time of 8:58.81.

The 30-year-old Russian, who is married to 400m runner Anton Galkin, is one of the hidden gems of middle distance running. She has set national records over all the distances but she seldom races outside Russia. In fact she did not run at all in 2005, only once in 2006 and this year she had just one race in Oslo before the Olympic Games.

But there was no sign of rustiness about her performances in Beijing where she took the field apart with kilometre splits of 2:58.63 and 3:02.57. Behind her Eunice Jepkorir (Kenya) set an African record at 9:07.41 and her Russian compatriot, Ekaterina Volkova, set a seasonal best 9:07.64 to take the bronze medal.