O'Rourke calls a halt

ATHLETICS: After two tired-looking runs over the weekend it's no surprise Derval O'Rourke has called a slightly premature halt to her season, cancelling plans to race the 100-metre hurdles in the last two Golden League meetings, in Brussels on Friday and Berlin on Friday week.

Last Friday in Zurich - exactly seven days after her silver-medal run at the European Championships in Gothenburg - O'Rourke was visibly flat when fading to seventh. On Sunday afternoon at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix she was equally leg-weary, again finishing seventh, in 13.17 seconds.

She'd run 12.72 to win European silver, and while she had been hopeful of improving on that time before season's end, she soon realised her Gothenburg exertions had taken much more out of her than expected.

In fact she called coach Jim Kilty within 15 minutes of crossing the line in Monte Carlo to admit she was "just drained mentally and physically" and it was time to quit for the season. It has since emerged she was hardly able to train last Wednesday as the whole Gothenburg experience - pressure, effort and celebrations - had effectively wiped her out.

She'll now take a month off, with plans to resume training on September 26th in the build-up to another indoor season.

O'Rourke has hinted at the European Indoors in Birmingham next March as her next target.

"She complained of feeling flat in Zurich on Friday night and it's not like Derval to complain," explained Kilty. "But she has achieved her goal for the season and I think everyone is happy with that. It has been a great year with the gold medal at the world indoor championships and then silver at the European outdoor championships. That is a tremendous achievement."