O'Rourke faces challenge to progress

ATHLETICS: AS IF having three Irish finalists going into the climax of the World Championships wasn't satisfying enough Derval O'Rourke now has the chance of making it four, although she'll need to produce something special.

Either way it will make for some exciting morning viewing from Daegu: while it seems only another false start will deny Usian Bolt the men’s 200 metres, the 1500m, featuring Macroom’s Ciarán O’Lionaird, should be a little more unpredictable.

For O’Rourke the battle to make the 100 m hurdles final fires off at 11.15am (Irish time), when she goes in the third of three semi-finals. Only the top two, plus two fastest losers, progress to the final, which fires off at 1pm – and O’Rourke knows better than anyone that her form in yesterday’s heats won’t be good enough.

“Yeah, you just have to run your arse off now to make that final,” she said, “And then see, hopefully, what I can do from there. But I know how tough it will be.”

O’Rourke clocked 13.07 in her heat, finishing second to Sally Pearson from Australia, who reinforced her favourite status by running 12.53. So, she’ll be in lane five for her semi-final, with at least three serious rivals: the American Danielle Carruthers, Britain’s Tiffany Porter, plus Jamaica’s defending champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton. At this stage two years ago O’Rourke ran 12.73 to make the final in Berlin, and will need to produce something likewise here.

“Well I’ve run the quickest I’ve ever run outside of a championship this year, a couple of times, so that’s good for me. Everything has gone exactly to plan. I should have just raced quicker before now, but if I do it here it’s irrelevant. I’m happy as well how I felt in the first round, because I usually hate it, find it quite hard. You always have so much to lose in the first round that you just don’t want to make any mistakes. So happy it’s done now, and ready to move on.”

O’Rourke was the only Irish athlete to progress yesterday, although there was consolation for the women’s 4x400m relay team of Marian Heffernan, Joanne Cuddihy, Claire Bergin and Michelle Carey, who although missing the final, finished fourth in their heat in 3:27.48 – smashing their own 3.30.11 national record, and ending up 12th best overall, thus putting themselves well within the top-16 rankings which decides what countries get to contest the Olympics in London.

However there was no consolation for Paul Hession, who finished fourth in his 200m heat in 21.02. Drawn in lane two, Hession appeared to start well, but couldn’t respond when the Finish runner Jonathan Astrand came through on his inside to nail the third automatic qualifying spot.

In the meantime, the other Irish interest rests with O’Lionaird, whose 1,500m final is set for 12.15pm, and Deirdre Ryan in the high jump final, which gets under way at 11am, before Alistair Cragg gets the chance to finish it all off in some style in tomorrow’s 5,000m, set for 11.40am.

No one is actually suggesting they can actually win medals, but O’Lionaird has defied all predictions to get this far, as has Ryan, and Cragg, believe it or not, may offer the best chance of all if he keeps himself in contention long enough. No expectations, no limitations, as O’Lionaird likes to say.

Campbell-Brown wins

VERONICA CAMPBELL-BROWN ripped Allyson Felixs 200 metres crown from her grip yesterday while another Jamaican scorched up the road to redemption and into the hearts of the Daegu crowd.

Usain Bolt sealed his reputation as the sport’s greatest showman as well as its fastest athlete with a peerless display of both charm and chutzpah, powering his way through two heats of 200m.

“It’s my favourite event. If I get a good start and execute, nobody beats me,” he said, the old swagger back after a humbling disqualification in the 100m final for a false start.

In the women’s final an eager Campbell-Brown was first out of the blocks and found an extra gear in the race to cross the line first, ahead of Carmelita Jeter with Felix third.