O’Rourke, second from top (photo via Sportresult)
Updated 20.10
IRELAND’S DERVAL O’ROURKE missed a medal by an agonising one-hundredth of a second at the European Indoor Championships this evening.
O’Rourke ran a season’s best time of 7.95 seconds in the 60m hurdles final, but it was only good enough for fourth as she was pipped to the podium by Alina Talay of Belarus and Veronica Borsi of Italy.
Both Talay and Borsi were timed at 7.94 seconds for silver and bronze, with all three athletes separated by the tiniest of margins in a photo finish.
Gold went to reigning European 100m hurdles champion Nevin Yanit of Turkey who set a new national record with a European leading time of 7.89 seconds.
It would have been a fifth major championship medal for O’Rourke, 31, who was crowned world champion over 60m indoors in Moscow in 2006.
Her narrow defeat was a rare moment of disappointment on an otherwise excellent day for the Irish squad in Gothenburg, which saw four athletes win their first-round races.
Brian Gregan, the fastest man over 400m in Europe so far this year, was sharp as he won his heat and cruised into tomorrow’s semi-finals in 46.97. The Dubliner, who was sixth fastest overall, returns to the track at 4.45pm Irish time tomorrow.
There was more success in the men’s 3,000m as Ciaran O’Lionaird continued his flying start to the season by winning the slower of this afternoon’s two semi-finals in 7:55.12. The Cork native now has a chance to add Ireland’s first medal of the championships when he goes in the final at 5.20pm tomorrow.
But there was disappointment for Stephen Scullion and John Travers, both of whom missed out on qualification. Scullion finished eighth behind O’Lionaird in 8:00.78 while Travers, who led the second semi final after the first lap, trailed off to finish last in 8:23.83.
In the women’s 800m, it was double delight as both Rose-Anne Galligan and Ciara Everard won their heats to qualify for the semis. Galligan was fifth fastest overall in 2:03.62 while Everard’s marginally slower time of 2:04.33 was the seventh. The two have avoided each other in the draw for tomorrow’s semis which begin from 4.30pm.
Claire Tarplee, who finished fourth in her 1500m heat in 4:15.16, missed out on a place in the semi-finals while Tori Pena crashed out of the pole vault after she failed three attempts at 4.36m.
