O'Rourke finishes second in indoor-season opener

ATHLETICS NEWS ROUND-UP:DERVAL O'ROURKE opened her indoor season at the Linz International meeting in Austria last night in encouraging fashion when finishing a close second in the 60 metres hurdles. Although victory on the night went to the fast-finishing American Yvette Lewis in 8.11 seconds, O'Rourke was right on her heels when clocking 8.16 – and in fact earlier in the night won her heat in 8.22 seconds.

O’Rourke was still some ways short of her national record of 7.84 seconds, clocked in 2006 when winning the World Indoor title in Moscow, but it’s no secret she requires several races before coming into championship form.

After a spell of warm-weather training in South Africa, O’Rourke has more indoor races lined up in the coming weeks – intent on having a full indoor season, culminating with the European Indoor Championships in Paris, which take place from March 4th-6th. O’Rourke won bronze in Turin two years ago, in 7.97, and has gold in mind this time round.

Also running in Linz last night was O’Rourke’s training partner Ailis McSweeney, who underlined her considerable improvement since going full time into the sport when winning the 60 metres sprint in 7.39 seconds. Last week saw McSweeney twice improve her lifetime best, running 7.36 seconds and then 7.34, and is closing in on the Irish record of 7.30 which has stood to Anna Boyle since 2007.

All Irish athletes considering Paris must also compete at the National Championships, set again for the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on February 20th – but in the meantime several Irish athletes have already booked their place on the Irish team for Paris, none more impressively than Darren McBrearty. Still a month shy of his 20th birthday, McBrearty made a massive breakthrough when winning the 800 metres at the Vienna Indoor Classic on Monday, his 1:47.87 the fastest by a European so far this season, and the second fastest in the world.

Amazingly, McBrearty had improved his lifetime best just two days earlier when running 1:48.88 at the Celtic International in Cardiff, and Monday’s run underlines the hugely exciting potential for the Donegal athlete, who clearly won’t be out of his depth when he makes the trip to Paris in a four weeks’ time. Prior to this winter, McBrearty’s best 800 metres was 1:49.37, from outdoors last summer, although he failed to progress from the heats in the 800 metres or 1,500 metres at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Canada. The Irish indoor 800 metres record of 1:47.21 has stood to Daniel Caulfield since 2001.

There’s been an equally impressive start to season for fellow Donegal athlete and Letterkenny club mate Mark English, who in fact won the 800 metres in Cardiff last weekend in an Irish junior record of 1:48.63 – just outside the 1.48.50 qualifying standard for Paris. Brian Gregan also secured a qualifying time for Paris when winning the 400 metres in Vienna, his 46.82 well inside the 47.20-qualifying mark.

It appears increasingly likely David Gillick will by-pass the indoor season and focus instead on his outdoor preparations at his new training base in Florida, with coach Lance Brauman, coach to Tyson Gay, among others.