DERVAL O’ROURKE WILL be a frustrated TV viewer when the start gun is fired at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow next month.
The Cork athlete has been attempting to recover from an Achilles injury that has hampered her progress all season, but she has ultimately admitted defeat.
“I did more this season to get myself to a world championships start line than any other season and ironically enough it will come as the first year since 2001 that I will not be competing at the world outdoor championships,” the Leevale hurdler wrote on her blog.
“Sometimes hard work does not pay off. Sometimes getting painful treatments, getting loads of opinions, spending excessive amounts of money and lots of hope just does not work.
The two-time European silver medallist and former world indoor champion revealed recently that she travelled to Germany to seek advice from the renowened Bayern Munich doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt.
“I found it so tough to let it go,” O’Rourke continued. “I think most people would have resigned themselves to the fact that outdoor season 2013 was a wrap about a month ago but I couldn’t. I got seduced by so many things. Firstly it was in Moscow, beautiful Moscow the city where I became a world champion. Secondly I ran the fastest I’ve done in 6 seasons indoor this year making me feel ready for an outdoor p.b. Thirdly I’m super motivated to race.
“But here I am and it is done,” she adds.
