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Derval O'Rourke INPHO/Paul Railton
Title Boost

National titles for Cork pair

Derval O’Rourke and Robert Heffernan both claimed victories in their respective events at the Morton Stadium in Santry.

DERVAL O’ROURKE STEPPED up her preparations for the World Championships in South Korea later this year by claiming a ninth senior title at the Senior Track and Field Championships on Sunday.

Running in the 100m hurdles final, the Cork woman finished in a time of 13.24 seconds to maintain her fantastic domestic record.

Fellow Corkonian Robert Heffernan only decided to compete in his 10,000km walking event at the last minute, having been hampered by injury in recent weeks. He sat back initially before taking charge of the race just before the halfway. From there he powered home and was clearly delighted with his display afterwards.

City of Lisburn AC’s Ciara Mageean put the disappointment of being beaten into second in the 800m final behind her to claim the women’s 1500m title, while Joanne Cuddihy ran a strong race to win the women’s 400m event in a time of 52.15 – with Marian Heffernan, wife of Robert, in second.

There was also title success for Alistair Cragg, who took control of the men’s 5,000m race from early on to win in a time of 13:48.03, and Thomas Barr. The latter’s time of 50.06 is narrowly outside the World Championships B standard.

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