Derval O'Rourke announces her retirement from athletics

Derval O'Rourke was one of the top athletes in the country and today she has just announced her retirement from athletics. In a statement she said.....
“I’ve had an absolutely amazing career in athletics and for that I am so grateful to all the support I have received along the way.  It’s been a tough decision but it feels like the right time.  I knew I could compete this season, but not in a time to be in medal contention by European Outdoors. Going to a Championships just to be there, isn’t me. 

“The last competitive race I ran was the bronze medal I won last year at European Indoors and I feel like that was a great performance.  I’ve been extremely lucky with the team I’ve had around me, Sean and Terrie Cahill are the rock that my success has been built on.  Together we forged a way to be successful on a world stage and I’m incredibly grateful for their focus, passion and dedication.

“I’ve loved every minute of my athletics career but now I’m going to take some time to reflect what has been a very privileged job for me for the past 12 years and make some decisions for the future”

Derval O'Rourke Achievements
Gold - 60m Hurdles - World Indoor Championships 2006 (Moscow)
Silver - 100m Hurdles - European Championships 2006 (Gothenburg)
Silver - 100m Hurdles - European Championships 2010 (Barcelona)
Bronze - 60m Hurdles - European Indoor Championships 2009 (Turin)
Bronze - 60m Hurdles - European Indoor Championships 2013 (Gothenburg)
Fourth - 100m Hurdles - World Championships 2009 (Berlin)
Three-time Irish Olympian - Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012
Represented Europe at the IAAF Continental Cup in 2010
Irish Senior Record Holder -
50m Hurdles Indoor (6.80 - Lievin 2006)
60m Hurdles Indoor (7.84 - Moscow 2006)
100m Hurdles Outdoor (12.65 - Barcelona 2010)
She will of course be best remembered for winning the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow in 2006...(Derval is in lane 3)


Anyone who has watched Derval O'Rourke in competition will know that when it came to getting out of the starting blocks and over that first hurdle, she was world class. It was this quality that saw her win the 2006 indoor 60m title in a time of 7.84 seconds.

The chart below shows the fastest times by Irish women in the 60m hurdles indoors...

As you can see, Derval O'Rourke's times are in a different league.

This chart shows the fastest Irish times over 100m...

Just as Sarah Lavin and Susan Smith have times noticeably faster than the rest, Derval O'Rourke's times are in another league again.

Phil Healy of Bandon AC sets a new PB in Geneva...

There was a large Irish contingent of athletes at the competition in Geneva last Switzerland. One of those who set a personal best was Phil Healy of Bandon AC. In the womens 100m, the 19 year old Cork woman set a new personal best time of 11.53 seconds, improving on her previous best of 11.63. That moves her up to 7th place on the Irish all time list.

The criteria for qualifying for the European Athletics Championships this summer are...

a) An athlete must achieve an “A” Performance Standard within the Qualification Period for the particular event  on, at least, one occasion. 
b) Development Athlete Selections will consist of individuals who are identified/carded by Athletics Ireland as ‘Development’ athletes and have minimally achieved two (2) “B” standards within the Qualification Period.

The 'A' standard for womens 100m is 11.4s while the 'B' standard is 11.6s.

Phil actually ran inside the 'B' standard twice last Saturday. In the heats, she ran 11.53 and ran 11.56 in the final.

I presume this may be enough to see her getting selected for the European Championships?

Irish 4 x 100m relay team...(L-R...Phil Healy, Catherine McManus, Niamh Whelan & Sarah Lavin)

Phil Healy was also part of the Irish 4 x 100m relay team that finished second last Saturday...
Rang Nom Société Performance Beme
1. Suisse Swiss Athletics 44.14 (Kambundji Mujinga 92 / Humair Fanette 91 / Golay Joëlle 87 / Sprunger Léa 90)
2. Irlande Irlande 44.45 (Lavin Sarah 94 / Whelan Niamh 90 / McManus Catherine 92 / Healy Phil 94 )
3. Pays de Galles Pays de Galles 44.66 (Brier Hannah 98 / Thomas Hannah 93 / Moore Mica 92 / Johncock Rachel 93 )
4. Suisse U23 Swiss Athletics 45.68 (Kora Salomé 94 / Keller Charlène 94 / Keller Melanie 94 / Dagry Samantha 94 )
5. Suisse U20 Swiss Athletics 46.12 (Strebel Irina 96 / Del Ponte Ajla 96 / Kambundji Muswama 96 / Blatty Inola 98 )

In the womens 100m hurdle race, 20 year old Sarah Lavin from Limerick finished 3rd in a new personal best time of 13.23 seconds. Her previous best was 13.34 when she won silver at the European Youth Championships in Italy last summer.

A full list of all the results can be seen HERE

IAAF article on top hurdler Sally Pearson

Over the last week or so, I came across two items from the IAAF about the 2012 Olympic 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson from Australia.

One was this incredible photo....

In most video clips of an event, it's hard to fully appreciate just how fast the athletes are moving. Any photographs tend to concentrate on the person clearing the hurdle which doesn't really convey the speed involved. This photo shows Pearson in the 2012 Olympics and because of her speed, you can see just how far from the hurdle she has to take off to clear it.

This is another article from the IAAF which gives her perspective on her career to date...
Sally Pearson : What I know about men...Sally Pearson talks about the role of various men in her life.

My dad wasn't a part of my life and that's all I can say about him. I've met him a few times, but I was very young and I can't really remember him. All I've known is having a mum. My mum, Anne, worked full time when I was at school so I had to grow up quickly. I thank her for that because I'm quite independent. I was 17 when I got my first contract with Adidas and I said to her: "You can quit your second job now, Mum."

My sports teacher, Brett Green, noticed me when I was in year 4. He said I was the most balanced runner he had ever seen, and he asked Mum to send me to his high school when I was older. She kept her word and I went to Helensvale State High School. [Tennis champion] Sam Stosur and [long-distance runner] Michael Shelley went there, too.

I was pushed out of my comfort zone by Mr Green (I call him Mr Green or Greenie, never Brett!). That's important when you're a teenager – when you're going through the awkward years, when you're lost and you don't know what you want to do. All my friends were going out and I wanted to do that, too. But Mr Green believed I could become a really great athlete. He still coaches at my track and I see him every afternoon. He always congratulates me.

My hurdling ability was spotted by Peter Hannan. His wife, Sharon, was my coach and Peter helped me with many different events. He would explain how to get the best technique on high jump and long jump. I would get frustrated, but he was always very patient. Sharon wanted me to do heptathlon but Peter said, "She's not tall enough to do heptathlon." He realised that I was always going to be a good hurdler.

I was 16 when I first met my manager, Robert Joske. He called me and said, "Hello, I'm a sports manager." I didn't even know what a sports manager was. He took me on when no one was interested in me and he's slowly brought me up through the ranks.

I'm a shy person, but I'm not as nervous in front of big crowds because of my sports manager. He built up my confidence in dealing with people. All those years ago, he said, "Write down one paragraph each day – what you did, what you saw, what you felt – so that one day you can put them all into a book." I said, "Yeah, right, I'm never going to write a book." Now I wish I had written down those paragraphs.
When you're a teenager you have lots of flings. But when I met my husband, Kieran, I felt comfortable and happy. We were acquaintances at school but we got talking at a party in year 12. We found we had the same vision. He wanted his own business and his own house. I wanted that, too.
I'm very impatient, but Kieran is always there for me and always ready to listen to my rants. He's a very different person to me. He's calm and relaxed and patient. I like to work quickly with things, but he holds me back and says, "You don't have to do it right now." He takes the brunt of life and makes things easier for me.
After I won silver in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, we were able to move into our own house. That's how much the win changed our lives.
We married in April 2010, then I went away for three months. It was the longest time we had been apart, but Kieran couldn't come because he was opening his own plumbing business. It was really hard on us and we never want to do that again. I was earning enough to support us both so I said, "Why don't you travel with me and see the sights and support me in my races." Kieran is my biggest supporter. When I retire, it'll be his turn to support us.

I always found Usain Bolt fascinating. We're born a month apart and I've watched him race since he was young. I had always thought he was arrogant, a showman. But in 2011, I was Female Athlete of the Year and he was the Male Athlete of the Year for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), and I got a chance to sit down and talk with him.
It changed my perspective of Usain. I had him completely wrong. I found out how passionate he is about the sport, how far he wants to go, and how much he's willing to do to achieve that. He inspired me to push harder and aim higher. He made me realise beating the world record is possible. He taught me that if you put the hard yards in and you want it, you can have it.

Sarah Lavin...Silver medalist at the recent European Athletics Junior Championships

At the Irish Senior Track and Field Championships in Dublin last weekend, Sarah Lavin of Emerald AC in Limerick won the Gold in the womens 100m hurdles in a winning time of 13.61 seconds.

Just one week earlier on the 20th of July, 19 year old Sarah won the Silver medal in the final of the European Athletics Junior Championships in Rieti, Italy. Sarah's time of 13.34 seconds was a new Irish Junior record for the event and she is currently the third fastest on the all time list for Irish women.

The gap between second and third in the final was just two one-hundredths of a second...

The race in full......(Actual race starts at 4:00)


Post race interview...


Medal ceremony...

So how does Sarah Lavins time of 13.34 seconds compare to Derval O'Rourkes times?

In 2000 when Derval was aged 19, her best time was 13.61 seconds. In 2003 aged 22, Derval broke the 13 second barrier when she ran 12.96 seconds. Derval's best time of 12.65 seconds was in 2010 when she was 29 years old.

They are of course two completely different athletes and there is no guarantee that Sarah can reach Derval's world class times but the potential is certainly there. It will be interesting to see how she progresses towards the 13 second barrier over the next few years.

Looking ahead to Deval O'Rourke in the Olympic womens 100m hurdles...Mon 6th August

Coming up next Monday, the 6th of August at 10am, Derval O'Rourke starts in the heats of the 100m hurdles in London. Back in Beijing Olympics of 2008, the slowest time to get through the first round was 12.98 seconds. It probably stands to reason so that Derval will need to go under 13 seconds if she hopes to progress through the first round. Just last week, she ran 13.02 so she may well be able to do it.

But what about the event itself?........the womens 100m hurdles? To the ordinary spectator, it may seem easy enough......just run as fast as possible for 100m and jump the hurdles along the way.

It is however a highly technical event where the smallest details can result in fractions of a second being gained or lost. The New York Times has an excellent video clip HERE which gives some basic facts about the event. Well worth watching.

Irish Athletics News...Derval O'Rourke injured?

Derval O'Rourke...Injured or not?........Derval O'Rourke was supposed to have taken part in the 100m hurdles at the Senior Track and Field Championships in the Morton Stadium in Santry last weekend. Having won the title nine times already, she had to pull out due to an injury concern with her back.

On Monday morning, there was a piece in the Irish Time written by Ian O'Riordan with the following headline.... O'Rourke injury casts major doubt over Olympic participation

The article continued....."Instead of winning a 10th national title in the sprint hurdles O’Rourke never made it out of the warm-up area, her sudden withdrawal due to a back injury now casting a major doubt over her participation in London later this month. For O’Rourke these championships were planned as one of the final, crucial test runs before London, and for things to go crashing so close to the Olympics can’t possibly auger well. 

She was actually a little too distraught to assess the situation herself, leaving her coach, Sean Cahill, to put words on the indescribable. “Derval actually raced twice, in Loughborough, on Saturday, and things went fine, no problems,” said Cahill, somewhat puzzled by the nature of her injury, but visibly concerned about the potential consequences. “Okay she’d two brutal starts, but ran 13:27, and 13:20, and flew back late last night, everything fine, no sign of any injuries whatsoever. She came out here, really looking forward to racing, and after 42 minutes of her 45-minute warm-up, she was just about to go over one last hurdle, flat out, and suddenly her back went into spasm.”

At 31 O’Rourke has taken every precaution to ensure preparations for London remain a healthy balancing act between pushing harder than ever and staying injury free: to miss any period of training at this stage, whatever about missing the last few races, could prove fatal to her chances of impacting on London as planned, and with that might yield the question of whether to even go there.

Coming from one of the main Irish newspapers, this story would have got a wide coverage especially with the general public who may not follow athletics too closely.

Contrast the above with what was written by Derval O'Rourke on her own blog...
I got home last night and felt stiff and tired after two races on a cold, rainy day in Loughborough. When I warmed up today I just wasn't feeling great. I was actually moving pretty fast but was stiff in a few places. This made me a little worried especially as my achilles and groin were both stiff. Sean was with me and decided if I was stiff running then it would be worse hurdling so off I went to see the physio. Paul is the physio and he has seen me many, many times. He had a good look and did loads of work (basically beat the crap out of me!!!). He reckons that my back had gotten quite tight, maybe from racing and a couple of hours later getting on a flight.

The plan is to take some anti-inflammatories, have a few ice baths and let everything settle. After I saw the physio I was feeling quite sad and upset at not running, I really do like to run nationals. It's no major drama and I have a physio check up in the morning. The plan is to race next Saturday.

On Tuesday, the Irish Independent had the following piece titled...O'Rourke injury not as bad as feared.....Derval O'Rourke's back injury should not stop her going to the London Olympics, but it has left her facing a race against time to be fully race-sharp.

Serious fears about the Leevale star's Olympic participation were raised when the golden girl of Irish athletics had to pull out of the national championships last Sunday with a sudden back spasm. Her coach Sean Cahill was more upbeat yesterday but admitted that it was still a "wait-and-see situation" and will cost her some valuable competition experience ahead of the Games. O'Rourke had planned to race in France tonight and was expected to get in several more sharpening races in the coming weeks. But she needed two hours of physiotherapy and acupuncture, yesterday (Monday) and it remains to be seen when she can return to training. "It's not as bad as we first feared, she already had more mobility today," Cahill said. "The good thing is that the medical people are convinced it is neurological and not muscular and will therefore respond quickly to treatment. "But the real test now is how long it will be before she is back running and sprinting full out on it."

Obviously not a good situation to be in so close to the Olympics.