Hession has history with Bolt

NO REST for the wickedly fast. Usain Bolt may have woken up yesterday with the sort of hangover previously unknown to mankind – the after-effects of running 100 metres in 9.58 seconds – but he’s straight back to work this morning for Part II of his World Championship gold-medal record-breaking odyssey: the 200 metres.

“The game is on now for the 200 metres gold,” he says, and didn’t even need to suggest the expectation of another world record. The €100,000 bonus Bolt earned in just 9.58 seconds on Sunday night (on top of the €60,000 first prize) is only part of the incentive to break another record in what is still his favourite event.

Bolt is clearly being inspired by the fairly wild German crowds inside the old Olympic Stadium, and is clearly in shape to better the 19.30 he ran in Beijing. No one in Berlin can wait.

As expected, Tyson Gay, the defending champion, last night withdrew from the 200 metres heats because of the groin injury that has bothered him all summer.

The American, runner-up to Bolt in Sunday’s 100 metres, still hopes to run in the 4x100 metres relay. “The groin is too sore,” his agent Mark Wetmore said.

For all the other entrants, who obviously have no hope of beating him, the hope was that they’d avoid him in the heats. Paul Hession at least got that break, drawn in the third of nine heats this morning – while the big Jamaican goes in heat five.

Hession should comfortably qualify for the second round later this evening, although after that things will get a little more interesting. The hard road to Thursday’s final starts here.

The Irish record holder is ranked second fastest in his heat, with Jamaica’s Steve Mullings the only one quicker. First three home, plus the five fastest losers across the nine heats, go through to the second round.

But even if Hession does get to race Bolt along the way, and ideally in the final, he won’t be shaking in his starting blocks.

“I have raced against Usain since I was 15,” he says, “so it won’t be anything new to me. He is a fantastic athlete and he just seems to enjoy it, with no pressure. But I won’t be thinking about what he does. I’ll be concentrating on putting in the performance of my life.

“Beijing, last year, was really good for me, I knew I could mix it with the best out there and now I feel I can make a world final. It’s been the focus of my year, as I’m sure it has been for most athletes, and now I just want to get there and see what I can do.”

Still, there’s often a very thin line between those who make it out of round one and those who don’t – as Michelle Carey discovered last night in her heat of the 400 metres hurdles.

The 28-year-old Dubliner ran a good race to finish fifth in 56.91, the win going to Jamaica’s Melanie Walker in 55.17, and Carey was in line to qualify as one of the four fastest losers – until the last of the five heats, when Germany’s Jonna Tilgner ran 56.73 for fifth, and thus edged out the Irish woman by one place.

Four other Irish athletes are in action today – and for David Gillick it’s also the start of the hard road to the 400 metres final. Like Hession, he got a good draw, and is the fastest this season in his heat, the first of seven. That’s what happens when you run sub 45-seconds, and Gillick’s 44.77 leaves him well clear of the next best this summer, Britain’s Robert Tobin and 45.15. American Lionel Harry, who has a lifetime best of 44.63, has only run 45.27 this season, but still Gillick can’t be complacent.

Again, it’s first three home, but only the three fastest losers, who go through to tomorrow’s three semi-finals – and that’s really where Gillick’s task here in Berlin begins.

“I want to make that final,” he says. “Why not? I’ve trained hard all winter, I’ve had some very good results. We’re at the time of the season now when it’s all about beating people, and I know now I can go out and challenge and mix it with them.”

Derval O’Rourke has come to Berlin on the back of a very mixed summer, and that doesn’t mean the weather. She goes in the third of five heats in the 100 metres hurdles, and getting out of that won’t be easy. America’s two-time defending champion Michelle Perry is in the same heat, as is Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Sally McLellan. But O’Rourke should still take one of the four automatic qualifying places, but it’s definitely going to take a season’s best if she’s to go further.

Deirdre Byrne and Deirdre Ryan are likely to require lifetime bests if they are to progress; Byrne goes in the third of three 1,500 metres ranked next to last of 14, with only the top six definitely progressing, while Ryan’s high jump best of 1.92 will need improving if she’s to make her final.