Pressure proves too hot to handle for Cuddihy

ATHLETICS:IT DIDN'T matter whether it was dusk or dawn in Daegu, because the pressure came on thick and fast for the Irish in action at the opening sessions of the World Championships, and for Joanne Cuddihy it eventually proved a little too hot to handle.

She wasn’t the only one – as a certain Usain Bolt later discovered – but having run a season’s best to qualify for the 400 metres semi-finals, Cuddihy effectively undid her fine effort by false starting. With that – like Bolt – came the dreaded and instant disqualification. There was no arguing with the decision this time either, nor could there be.

There will be some consolation for the 27-year-old from Kilkenny in that she’s coming back to her best form, and ideally can build on it for the London Olympics. “I can’t blame anyone but myself for the false start” said Cuddihy, adding that she will “now turn my focus to the 4x400m relay for redemption”.

Cuddihy’s 51.82 in Saturday’s heats improved the 52.15 she’d run in Santry earlier this month, and earned her an automatic qualifying spot for the semi-finals. Yet there was no excuse for her false-start yesterday, which forced her to watch from the trackside as Amantle Montsho from Botswana took the win in 50.13.

Fionnuala Britton came close to making the final of the 3,000m steeplechase, finishing sixth in heat in 9:41.17, but in the end that left her just one place short of a progressing as one of the fastest losers. There was another bitter twist to that as winning her heat was Binnaz Uslu from Turkey, who ran a national record of 9:24.06, and last December denied Britton a medal at the European Cross Country, and also beat her to the gold in under-23 race back in 2006.

Stephanie O’Reilly, competing in her first World Championships, finished eighth in her heat in a time of 9:55.49 – although admitted afterwards the high humidity was difficult to contend with.

A first World Championships too for double Paralympics sprint champion Jason Smyth and yet he, too, will be a little disappointed with his performance, or at least his time: Smyth finished fifth in his 100m heat in 10.57, albeit into a -1.7 headwind, although this was well outside his personal best of 10.22, which he set this year – and thus failed to progress.

Qualification in the pole vault also proved well out of reach for Tori Pena, who despite improving her Irish record six times this season to 4.40 metres, could only manage 4.10 metres in her qualification group – and thus ended up last of the 16 to clear a height.

On a separate note, Marian Heffernan has returned to Daegu and will take her place in the women’s 400m relay later this week. Heffernan, who is married to race walker Rob Heffernan, returned to Ireland over the weekend to attend the funeral of her mother-in-law.