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Derval O' Rourke to defend her crown in Valencia...Hooray!

  • 29-11-2007 2:48pm
    #1
    Rineanna
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,614 ✭✭✭


    An article on the AAI website has revealed that O' Rourke is to defend her title at the World Indoors in Valencia.
    Athletics Northern Ireland and the Athletic Association of Ireland are pleased to announce that the current World Indoors champion and European Silver medallist DERVAL O’ROURKE from Cork will be competing at the Odyssey Arena on 26th/27th January next year.

    In the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow, O’Rourke created a major upset to become the first Irish female to win a World Indoors title. During that March weekend, she broke the Irish 60 metres hurdles record twice to defeat Olympic silver medallist Glory Alozie from Spain in a world class time of 7.84 seconds. O’Rourke managed to use her speed and attacking power to ensure victory over taller and better known opponents.

    O’Rourke’s win came as no surprise to those who saw her performance at the Odyssey Arena in February 2006 when she defeated the current World Outdoor bronze medallist Delloreen Ennis London of Jamaica in a new Irish record time of 7.90 secs.

    Earlier this year Derval’s performances were affected by injury which resulted in her just failing to reach the World Championships final in Osaka last August. However the 26-year old is now injury free and will be using the Odyssey meeting as a stepping stone to the World Indoors in Valencia next March plus the Beijing Olympics in August.

    Linky

    I'm absolutely over the moon at this news. I was distraught when she decided to skip the Euro Indoors this year, as I would have bet my Granny on the fact that she'd be walking away with the Gold in her hand if she had competed. I still think she's better over 60m indoors than Kallur (Susanna that is) even if the Swede has the advantage over the added 40m outdoors. If I remember correctly from the World Semi-final (and I'm open to correction on this), O' Rourke was there and thereabouts in the lead up and around the 60m mark before she faded badly in the last 40m. She was also dogged by injury from pretty early on in the season so hopefully she'll be injury-free for the whole of next season, indoors and outdoors.

    It'll be fascinating to see what change we'll see in her since her move to Malcolm Arnold. Could she be in better hands?

    *Rubs hands in glee*


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