ATHLETICS:Irish athletics is a small world and there's been a lot of talk going around about Derval O'Rourke - that her form wasn't good, her confidence was shot, and at this rate she might not even show in Osaka for the World Championships.

Don't believe the lack of hype. By the time she'd finished a press conference in Dublin yesterday O'Rourke had us giddy with excitement again, just as she had a year ago when heading to the European Championships in Gothenburg. She wasn't expected to medal there (which she did), and O'Rourke still has clear expectations of her own for Osaka, where the championships begin on August 25th.

"In ways this whole season so far has been about finding my feet after last year," she said, "and I do think it's starting to come around now. What people forget sometimes is that championships are a clean slate. Nobody goes into a championship automatically having a medal. You have to work really hard for it.

"There's a position and time that I've had written up on my wardrobe for the past 12 months. And I have to go there believing I can still do that."

Wow - and what's that, Derval?

"Only people that get into my bedroom see it . . ."

Rarely has O'Rourke seemed more relaxed and jovial, especially given the unquestionable difficulties of recent months.

Having bypassed the indoor season and the chance to add a European medal to her World Indoor gold, she has struggled to match the 12.72 seconds she ran to claim silver in the 100 metre hurdles in Gothenburg, and her current season's best, 12.95, ranks her only 34th in the world.

In the meantime the world leader, Michelle Perry of the US, has run 12.44.

O'Rourke has two final hurdle races lined up in Germany this weekend, but she's clearly not bothered much by times.

"If I think about it, it is very similar to last year, bar a couple of hundredths (of a second). These two races in Germany are what I did before Gothenburg last year, when I ran a couple of 12.8s. And I do hope to do that again this weekend.

"It's been such a random season. I ran 12.95 in Belgium, and it was so bad, technically. I was just trying so hard to be competitive, and was right up there for the first six hurdles.

"I stepped off the track thinking there's nobody in Osaka that can kill me, the way I felt until the fifth hurdle. It was like after the semi-final in Gothenburg last year, where all the belief just comes back."

That belief will be crucial when she toes the line for her 100-metre hurdles heats on the morning of August 27th, because O'Rourke has never been fitter.

"A lot of things have happened that I didn't expect, but when I sit down now and think about Osaka I do start to get a little excited.

"I mean I've trained so consistently well, running personal bests over 150, 120, 60 metres . . .

"Unless my coaching team are complete liars, which I don't think they are, it's going really good. Sometimes you just need that little bit of faith.

"The fact that I haven't run sub-13 seconds a little bit more is disappointing, but the weather has been so bad in Europe this year as well, there are so many logical explanations.

"It's really taken me a while to zone in. But I know that won't happen in Osaka. When you're in a championship you just run on pure fear, run like hell, because there is no other option," she said.

For David Gillick, who also attended the Osaka send-off yesterday, the World Championships were clearly going to be the highlight of his season as well.

"I'm really looking forward to getting out there," he said. "To me this is the chance of a lifetime. I've been training for the last nine months, focusing on Osaka the whole time. Indoors is indoors, and it was a European indoors. The World championships, outdoors, is so much bigger. That's what you're remembered for.

"I want to go out there and run to my potential. It's about getting through the rounds. If you're not top five in the world you can't hold back. So I have to approach the first round as the most important."

Gillick's recent best of 45.23 seconds ranks him 22nd in the world, but just like O'Rourke he's not letting that limit his ambitions: "When I ran that time, in Geneva, I was in the mix, as regards lanes and the race, so to speak. I've been a bit isolated in the races since. To run fast like that you need people around you.

"It's going to be tough in Osaka, very, very difficult. There's Jeremy Wariner running 43 seconds on Tuesday night. But from an athlete's perspective you have to look forward to it.

"It's my first World Championships. I've watched them since I was a kid, and it's where you want to be."