O'Rourke wins 11th national indoor title

ATHLETICS:HER LONDON Olympic odyssey is at least well underway but Derval O'Rourke knows that journey will need to speed up a little over the weeks ahead, particularly if she wants to leave her desired impact on the indoor season.

Not that there was anything wrong with O’Rourke’s 60 metres hurdles victory at yesterday’s Irish Indoor Championships, staged, suitably enough, at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena: she looked smooth and technically sound in securing what was her 11th national indoor title in the event, even after missing out last year through injury.

Yet O’Rourke’s time of 8.21 seconds was actually a tad slower than her two previous indoor appearances this season – the 8.16 she ran in Vienna, followed by the 8.18 she ran in Linz.

There was some satisfaction, however, in that it improved the 8.23 seconds she’d run in heats earlier in the afternoon, and after missing some training last month with a calf injury, her race sharpness can only improve.

What she’ll be looking for ahead of next month’s World Indoor Championships – set for Istanbul on March 9th-11th – will be a time somewhere closer to the 7.84 seconds she clocked when winning the World Indoor title back in 2006, and indeed a few weeks before that the Cork athlete ran 7.90 to win the Irish title, also in Belfast.

Although O’Rourke had it all her own way, there was an excellent performance in second place from Sarah Lavin from the Emerald club in Limerick, who clocked 8.46 seconds to equal the Irish junior record – which yes, is also held by O’Rourke, and set back in 1999. Lavin continues to make exciting progress after winning the bronze medal at the European Youth Olympics in Turkey last summer, and suggests the event should remain in good hands.

Yet this probably wasn’t even the best hurdles race of the afternoon, either, as Ben Reynolds maintained his big impression on the Irish record books since switching allegiance from Britain at the start of the year.

The North Down athlete, who actually won the Irish outdoor 110 metres hurdles last summer, won the men’s 60 metres hurdles in 7.75 seconds – which broke his own Irish under-23 record of 7.88, set last month. Unfortunately for Reynolds the 7.75 was just one hundredth of a second outside the standard for the World Indoors, although chances are he’ll be selected anyway.

Reynolds looks like the future of men’s sprint hurdles but former champion Peter Coghlan of Crusaders took bronze in 7.95.

Elsewhere the distance races provided plenty of exciting finishes, with Daniel Mooney from Letterkenny winning a tactical 1,500 metres in 3:52.83.

Orla Drumm from UCC and Sara Louise Treacy from Moynalvy fought a fierce battle in the women’s 1,500m, before Drumm eventually broke clear to win in 4:20.54, with Treacy second in 4:22.17.

Alan Kelly from St Abban’s won the men’s 800m from the front, followed home by two juniors in Karl Griffin from Tir Chonaill and Dean Cronin from Blarney Inniscarra AC. In the women’s 800m, UCD scholarship athlete Ciara Everard held off Laura Crowe from An Riocht, winning in 2:07.34, while on Saturday, Mark Christie from Mullingar Harriers ran his best indoor race this season to win the 3,000m in 8:01.29.

Among the sprinting highlights was Seye Ogunlewe from Celbridge winning the men’s 60m in 6.79, and Amy Foster from the City of Lisburn setting a new personal best of 7.37 seconds to win the women’s title.

RTÉ 2 will have one-hour highlights from the Odyssey this evening at 7.00pm.

Irish milers once again left their mark on the US indoor circuit over the weekend, although perhaps not as highly positioned as hoped. Cork’s Ciarán Ó Lionáird improved the 3:56.01 he ran in Boston last weekend when clocking a very swift 3:54.76 at the USA Track Classic in Fayetteville, Arkansas, yet had to settle for sixth place in a very high quality race, with Silas Kiplagat leading home a trio of Kenyans in 3:52.63.

David McCarthy from Waterford also put up a decent show in the famous Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games, again mixing it with some real quality opposition, and finished eighth in 3:57.86 – with American star Matt Centrowitz breaking the Armory mile record of 3:54.98 set by Ireland’s Mark Carroll, back in 2000, with his 3:53.92.

Finally, Joanne Cuddihy won the 400m at the Perth Track Classic in 52.08 and looks well on course to challenge for London Olympic qualification over the coming months.