DERVAL O’ROURKE IS keen to take it just one step at a time in the lead up to London 2012.
The Cork hurdler admits that the Olympics are an obvious ‘pinnacle’ of her sport.
However, she is currently most focused on the next big meeting in Istanbul in early March.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning O’Rourke was audibly, frustrated by the sheer mention of the London games, saying ‘yes’ through slightly gritted teeth when the topic arose.
“We’ve a lot going on. I mean in three weeks I’ve got the World Indoor Championships. Even in the supermarket, people go; ‘how are ya feeling for the Olympics?’ and I’m going; ‘well, I’ve got world indoors - I’m feeling pretty alright for them.”
“We have championships all the time,” O’Rourke added, “last year we had European indoors and world outdoors so every year we have really big meets. But, obviously, the Olympics are the pinnacle and it’s understandable that people tune in then and start to get excited. That’s the one you wanna nail.”
Later, in a wide ranging interview, O’Rourke spoke briefly of the financial side of athletics and admitted:
“I wouldn’t care if I walked out of the Olympics completely broke if I ran a national record.”
That record of course, is her own standard of 12.65 seconds, set on her way to silver in the 2010 European Championships. The 30-year old is well aware that there is work to be done to reach that peak again.
“I’m in good form. I ran a couple of races where I wasn’t happy with the times, but I had a couple of niggles and i was hurting a little bit which is why I think they weren’t that fast.
“Training is going really well – I’m kind of sneakily, under the radar, happy with training.”
“My hope for London is that I go there and run a national record – I think that’s good enough to be in a final. and once you’re in a final absolutely anything can happen.”
