ATHLETICS:THERE IS now a clear split in the form of the Irish athletes headed for Beijing: those for whom it's all coming together; and those for whom it's all falling apart. While Paul Hession, David Gillick, Alistair Cragg and Róisín McGettigan enjoyed the perfect send-off at this weekend's London Grand Prix, Derval O'Rourke joins a growing injury list that has left her in a race against time if she's to compete in the Olympics at all.
O'Rourke had secured a lane in the 100 metres hurdles in London on Saturday, but was forced to withdraw after injuring herself in training last Thursday. She underwent an MRI scan on Saturday, which revealed a small tear in the adductor muscle - just off the groin area.
This will require specialist treatment over the next seven days, but part of the problem is Ger Hartmann, who she has worked with over the past two years, is in Kenya working with some of their athletes ahead of Beijing. He returns on Thursday, and has been advising O'Rourke over the phone.
"It is not a serious tear," said Hartmann, "but such tears can take upwards of seven days to heal, with the right treatment, and another four to seven days before resuming full training loads."
Eileen O'Keeffe is also still getting treatment on a knee cartilage injury that is threatening her participation in the hammer, while Joanne Cuddihy's calf muscle injury has prevented her from doing any 400 metre training for almost a month.
For the Irish who did get into the action in London, the results were hugely encouraging. Hession lined up against a certain Usain Bolt in the 200 metres, along with six other potential Beijing finalists, and despite running in lane eight, ran brilliantly to take third in a season's best of 20.37.
Bolt, as expected, took the win in 19.76 - the fastest 200 metres ever run on British soil, but Hession was right in the mix for the chase. American Wallace Spearman, third in their Olympic trials, took second in 20.27, with Hession finishing strongly to hold off Brian Dzingai of Zimbabwe.
Gillick lined up in an equally strong 400 metres, and the victory there went to his training partner, Martyn Rooney of Britain, who ran his first sub-45 second clocking of 44.83. Canadian Tyler Christopher took second in 45.29, with Gillick third in 45.35.
The Dubliner had struggled a little over the very quick opening 200 metres, but pulled through over the second half of the race, beating American David Neville, who was third in their Olympics trials, into fourth, in 45.39.
In this sort of form, both Hession and Gillick have an outside chance of making Olympic finals in their events.
Cragg took third in the 3,000 metres, clocking 7:38.60, and is running into the sort of form that should secure him a place in the Olympic 5,000 metres final. With McGettigan winning the 3,000 metres steeplechase on Friday evening, it was a good outing for all the Irish who did compete in London. If only the same could be said about O'Rourke.
