Corkwoman is first Irish woman to win World Indoor Gold

Steps that led O'Rourke to glory
RICHARD LEWIS IN MOSCOW

The Cork athlete is the new world indoor 60m hurdles champion, a
reward for all her hard work

OUTSIDE the amazing Olympijski Arena, snow is everywhere. Temperatures
are minus seven and the weather is deteriorating. Inside, sobering
words about the heat of Portugal were more than welcome, though when
Ireland's Derval O'Rourke talked about them, she could never have
realised what two weeks in the sun would do to her career.
In January, she travelled for warm-weather training to Portugal,
determined it would provide the foundation for a tilt at becoming the
60m hurdles world champion. Last night she became the first Irish
woman to win a gold medal at the world indoor championships.

These are the 11th edition of the event, and when you consider than
not even Ireland's greatest heroine Sonia O'Sullivan could manage it,
it only goes to show the extent of the glory of this new glory girl
from Cork.

But it might have been so different. She has two coaches — her
long-time adviser Jim Kilty and Sean Cahill — and the trip to
Portugal, in retrospect, played a major part in why she is now the
owner of a gold medal.

"It was only the second time I had broken time (in five years) with
Jim," she said. "I wanted to get things right. Sean told me to keep
the faith."

Her progression has been eye-catching, the result of hard work and
dedication. She was seventh in her heat in the Olympic Games in Athens
in 2004, and then seventh in the semi-finals at the world
championships in Helsinki last summer. But on the Grand Prix scene
across Europe this winter, she has been superb, wining consistently.

That was the key, and no wonder the thanks went the way of her
coaches. It is all about timing, and O'Rourke reached the top of the
mountain on the day she really wanted to. "I worked hard for this
result. I was nervous, but everything was okay during the run,", said
O'Rourke. "I became more confident in every session."

With such a compact championships, three races are packed into the one
day and O'Rourke looked good from the start by finishing second in her
heat in 7.93, before winning her semi in 7.87, which was the national
record before her blistering display in the final when she broke it
again. She was on a roll, which took her into the Irish record books.

O'Rourke triumphed in 7.84 from Alozie in 7.86 with Sweden's Susanna
Kallur third in 7.87. It led the way for Ireland on a day of tough
finals. James Nolan signalled his return to the major scene, he said,
by finishing sixth in the 1500m, as Ukraine's Ivan Heshko won in
3:42.08 to land a surprise triumph ahead of Kenya's Daniel Kipchirchir
Komen, who was second in 3:42.55. Nolan finished in 3:34.98 and he
said: "I can build on this for the summer."

David McCarthy finished last in his semi-final of the 400m, a race
that saw him forced out wide and where he never have enough time to
recover. As Christopher Brown, of the Bahamas, won in 46.10, McCarthy
was sixth in 47.11. He said: "It was a bad race. I was in fourth along
the final back straight but I got stuck out wide on the third bend and
that is where it all went wrong. But it is my best time for three
years."

There was double disappointment for Ireland in the women's 3000m
final, where the pace of Ethiopian Meseret Defar was too hot for the
rest of the field. Defar, the defending champion, took control from
the start, breaking away with two laps left to win in 8:38.80, never
allowing the rest of the field to have a say.

Ireland's Maria McCambridge was 10th in 9:07.26 with teammate Roisin
McGettingan 13th and last in 9:28.85.

But the best was left to last, and tears this time for Derval O'Rourke
were in celebration of something really quite special.