Athletics: Tough hurdle for O'Rourke; Irish athletes out to impress selectors DERVAL FACES SPEED RIVALS.Byline: By TOM O'RIORDAN DERVAL O'Rourke Derval O'Rourke (born 28 May, 1981, in Cork, Republic of Ireland) is an Irish sprint hurdles athlete. She competes internationally in the 60 and 100 metres hurdles, and is the Irish national record holder in both events. faces a very searching test for her first hurdles race of the new season when she runs the 100 metres event at the Stavanger Games in Norway tonight. O'Rourke, who won Gold in the 2006 World Indoor 60 metres hurdles and silver medal in the 100 hurdles at the European Championships a few months later, comes up against a couple of world class opponents at the Stavanger event. The 26-year-old was due to run 100m on the flat in Greece two weeks ago but withdrew after experiencing a slight soreness in a calf muscle The calf or gastrosoleus is a pair of muscles—the gastrocnemius and soleus—at the back of the lower human leg. The gastrosoleus complex is connected to the foot through the Achilles tendon, and contract to induce plantar flexion and stabilization of the . She said: "It was nothing serious. A visit to the physiotherapist and it was sorted out - I lost very little training." O'Rourke is still vividly remembered for those two outstanding performances in '06 when blistering turns of speed in Moscow took the world indoors honours. She also impressed with the explosive start which took her to the silver medal in Gothenburg and a new Irish record of 12.72 seconds. Her big targets for this year are the World Championships in Osaka in August when she hopes to make the final. To do that, she reckons, that she will need to be running under 12.6 and very close to 12.5. They are fast times by any standards but last year her 12.72 was beaten by just 12 other athletes and two of them, Adrianna Lamalle Adrianna Lamalle (born September 27 1982) is a French hurdler. She finished 8th in the 100m hurdles final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. She also won the bronze medal in the same event at the 2000 World Junior Championships. of France and the speedy Canadian Angela Whyte are in the line-up tonight. Lamalle, 24, ran 12.67 last year but this season has already improved on that with 12.63 while Whyte has also clipped a couple of fractions off her best with 12.67. The draw in the eight runner field sees Whyte in lane two, O'Rourke in three and Lamalle in four and clearly the organisers are expecting a top class race. It's always difficult for an athlete facing their first race of the season and if O'Rourke was to hit something around 12.80 I feel she will be happy with another top class race coming on Friday night at the Golden League meeting in Oslo. Also in action in tonight's meeting is the new Irish 100 metres record holder, Paul Hession Paul Hession (born January 27, 1983 in Athnery, Galway) is an Irish international track and field athlete. Hession is a sprinter and specialises in the 200 metres. He has won silver and bronze medals at the World University Games and in 2007 made the leap into world class by , who ran 10.28 seconds a couple of weeks ago. That was a vast improvement on his previous best from last year of 10.46 but his indoor sprinting over the winter was sensational, breaking the Irish record for the 60m consistently and reaching the Euro indoor final in Birmingham. Tonight he is up against a fast Jamacian, Nesta Carter, who has 10.20 to his credit from last year and 10.15 this season. Hession, who seems to have moved into a new plateau of world sprinting, will have two races - a heat and a final an hour later. In all there are seven Irish athletes in action at the meeting, with Paul McKee Paul "Junior" McKee (born October 15, 1977) in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is an Irish sprint athlete. He has represented Ireland many times in international competition, including being a member of the Irish 4 x 400 metres relay team at the Sydney Olympics. running the 400 metres, David Campbell David Campbell may refer to:
Some of these athletes will be looking to impress the Irish selectors as they prepare to name the team for the European Cup tomorrow morning. Current world 5,000m champion, Benjamin Limo of Kenya, has been added to list of top class athletes that will be in action at Cork City Sports on June 30 when he will run the 3,000 metres. Limo won the short course gold medal in the World Cross-Country in Belfast in '99 and has run under the magical 13 minutes for 5,000m. CAPTION(S): TESTING TIMES: Derval O'Rourke will line up against top class opposition in the Norway event tonight; NEW LEVEL: Paul Hession |
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