Hession breezes into quarters

ATHLETICS/World Championships: Day four of the World Athletics Championships, and the main question surrounding the Irish interest was whether or not fortune would finally smile. The answer first came blowing in the wind - and then the rain.

Never in the 10 editions of these championships has the weather played a starring role quite like it did in Helsinki yesterday. When Paul Hession appeared in the old Olympic Stadium shortly after midday for the heats of the 200 metres there was warm sunshine but a swirling wind. Most of the time that wind was blowing in the face of the sprinters, but just as Hession rose from his blocks it turned into a freak tailwind. He ran 20.40 seconds, only good enough for seventh place but plenty good to qualify him as a fastest loser.

The Galway man was supposed to be back on the track yesterday evening for the quarter-finals, but shortly after the second session got underway dark clouds appeared and promptly poured torrents of drenching rain into the stadium.

The downpour continued without cease for over 90 minutes, also bringing a spectacular thunder-and-lightning show for the few spectators brave enough to stay in their seats.

All the while Derval O'Rourke was in the call room, waiting to be walked out onto the track for heat three of the 100-metre hurdles. Heat one had gone off as scheduled at 6.42 local time, but now the clock read 8.42. And the rain had just about eased.

"It was very strange. There were 40 hurdlers all waiting around in a small room, all just looking at each other for an hour and a half," she said.

"At one stage they said they were 90-per-cent sure that we wouldn't be running at all. Then they said we'd run at 8.20, then that went back again. So I actually started to warm down.

"The American girl Joanna Hayes was going crazy, saying, 'I'm the Olympic champion, I don't need this. Ladies, whose with me?' And we all just put our heads down. We had nothing to eat, and I'd had nothing since two, and you just don't plan for that. Luckily I know a few of the hurdlers, and we just tried to keep ourselves focused."

O'Rourke's drama wasn't quite done for the night. Finally, she went to her blocks with the track still sodden. Defending champion Perdita Felicien of Canada won in 12.77, but O'Rourke started superbly, held form and nerve, and took sixth in 13.00 - her second-fastest legal time ever.

But with only the top four qualifying, that started an anxious wait to see if she'd progress as one of the four fastest losers. She tried to remain calm in the mixed zone until heat five was out of the way, and when the sixth finisher came home in 14.00 she realised she was through.

"I'm so excited about that," she added, now certain of another run later today. "That's what I was targeting all along. I think I was in the top four until hurdle seven, but I went a little too high over that one. Still I'm delighted.

"It really was a mental test out there after all the waiting around. But to be honest I actually had two pairs of spikes with me here, and for some reason I brought the ones I use in the rain. Thank God for that."

The Cork woman will now target her Irish record of 12.96 in this evening's quarter-finals, though she is drawn in the outside lane.

Still, if the rain holds off she's clearly in the form to break it.

At 24 she's also proving that persistence does pay off, and that sometimes you do need a little luck at the major championships.

Hession could only smile when he realised how luck had helped him get through his heat. He probably wasn't complaining either when his quarter-final was postponed because of the downpour and refixed for this afternoon at 1.45 local time (11.45 Irish). Once the evening programme was put on hold the officials agreed the 200m could easily be rearranged, and they also refixed the women's discus final for tomorrow.

It was asking a lot though for his luck to hold, and he was drawn in lane one of the first quarter-final - alongside the exciting new American Wallace Spearman. Still, he looked back on his heat with satisfaction.

"I certainly felt like I was running very fast. I managed to keep my concentration, but of course it sounds a bit ridiculous to run 20.40 and finish seventh in your heat. But I've only had three weeks of work coming here because of injury, and I'll go out again looking to be competitive and staying in the mix.

"But after this I'm definitely glad I came to these championships."

Hession's heat was won by the American Tyson Gay in 19.99, but the wind reading was a massive +4.3, well over the legal limit of +2.

Incredibly, that wind was -2.1 for the next heat, which the Australian Daniel Batman won in 20.68 - and after that it was clear Hession's time was easily good enough to get him among the eight fastest losers.

The remaining three Irish enter the fray today - including Maria McCambridge in heat two of the 5,000 metres, perhaps the best hope for a place in the final.

Peter Coghlan got a difficult draw in the 110-metre hurdles and is ranked seventh-best in heat six, while Eileen O'Keeffe makes the sole Irish foray in the field events, in the hammer.