ATHLETICS: As if the excitement surrounding the women's 100 metres hurdles wasn't crazy enough, the tension was extended over two hours after the finish. Derval O'Rourke found herself doing three rounds of interviews - first as silver medallist, later as not-sure-what medallist, and finally as joint silver medallist. It was one of those nights in Gothenburg.
Not that the slightly bizarre situation matters now. What the 25-year-old Cork athlete achieved here over the past two days ranks as possibly the single greatest performance by an Irish athlete in the history of championship running. A silver medal, running in lane one, and smashing the national record in the process.
And then waiting over two hours to really celebrate it. Who could have written this? Those of us in the comfortable seats of the Ullevi Stadium didn't give her much of a chance after the semi-finals - run just 90 minutes earlier - not when she appeared to tire over the last 10 metres, ending up third to Susanna Kallur and Adrianna Lamalle of France. Her 12.94 looked like hard work, it didn't appear like she had much more in reserve, and worse still she was handed lane one for the final.
"As soon as I got through the semi-final I'd a sneaking feeling they'd put me in lane one," she admitted. "But it was fine. I just set my blocks up slightly to the right. But look, every lane is straight. It's not like a 200 metres. And it might have given me an extra bit of incentive. I mean maybe sneak in there from lane one, with no one knowing I was there.
"Then just before the final I rang my best mate from home, Martina McCarthy, and she said just run to win it. That's what I did, but of course I'd take any medal. I completely lost my balance coming off the 10th hurdle, and almost stumbled over the line, which may have helped me. Sitting out there I was just saying to myself, 'Please God'. I'm not hugely religious, but I would have some faith, and always bless myself before I run. So while we were sitting there I was just praying for a medal.
"And the one thing my coaches Jim Kilty and Sean Cahill have been saying to me all season is that I need to concentrate more, and attack each hurdle. And that's all I did, make very hurdle count. Jim had put down the foundation for this over the last five years. Sean came in and brought that little bit extra."
That was the first round of interviews out of the way. Once the German federation saw the photo finish they lodged an appeal, claiming the photo from one angle was inconclusive, and that only the other angle proved O'Rourke had the silver. They were campaigning for a joint silver - which around 10.30 Gothenburg was finally confirmed in a brief statement circulated among the waiting media. No one had any complaints.
Kirsten Bolm - who showed up first in the silver medal position, later moved to bronze - was also happy: "Yeah, first of all I was really happy with the silver. It was very frustrating when they took away my name, and I was getting really nervous about not winning any medal. But I'll take that silver right now. I've never won an outdoor medal before."
O'Rourke - who had never made a major outdoor final - was happiest of all: "All this means so much more than World Indoors. That was sort of won for myself, but this medal is won for everybody else that supported me. Nothing went wrong in the build-up to Moscow, so winning was easy. This was so different. There were days when I cried a bit, which makes it all the more emotional to come away with a medal.
"I don't want to be mean about it, but we've had a few Irish athletes that won medals indoors, and couldn't come back to win anymore. I didn't want people to think I was one of those. That I was once-off. I wanted people to know that I was here for the long term." O'Rourke will get her medal today in between her heats of the 100m relay.
YESTERDAY'S FINALS
Women's 100m Hurdles: 1. Susanna Kallur (Swe) 12.59; 2. Derval O'Rourke (Ire) 12.72; 3. Kirsten Bolm (Ger) 12.72.
Women's 200m: 1. Kim Gevaert (Bel) 22.68; 2. Yuliya Gushchina (Rus) 22.93; 3. Natalya Rusakova (Rus) 23.09.
Women's High Jump: 1. Tia Hellebaut (Bel) 2.03; 2. Venelina Veneva (Bul) 2.03; 3. Kajsa Bergqvist (Swe) 2.01.
Men's 3000m Steeplechase: 1. Jukka Keskisalo (Fin) 8:24.89; 2. Jose Luis Blanco (Spa) 8:26.22; 3. Bouabdellah Tahri (Fra) 8:27.15.
Decathlon: 1. Roman Sebrle (Czech Rep) 8,526pts; 2. Attila Zhivockzy (Hun) 8.356; 3. Aleksey Drozkov (Rus) 8,350.
HOW THE IRISH FARED
Women's 1,500m: Heat: Aoife Byrne, heat 2, 14th, 4:16.07.
Women's High Jump: Final: 13. Deirdre Ryan 13th, 1.84m.
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS
Today: 11.10: Women's marathon; 12.35: Women's shot put final; 14.00: Women's pole vault final; 14.40 Men's 4x400 metre relay heats (Ireland - Paul McKee, Brian Boyle, David Gillick, David McCarthy); 14:50: Men's triple jump final; 15.15 Women's 3,000 metres steeplechase final; 15.30 Men's discus final; 15.35 Women's 4x100 metre relay heats (Ireland - Derval O'Rourke, Joanne Cuddihy, Ailish McSweeney, Anna Boyle); 16.15: Women's 5,000 metres final (Mary Cullen, Marie Davenport); 16.40: Men's 110 metres hurdles final.
Tomorrow: 11.10: Men's marathon; 12.45: Men's pole vault final; 13.35: Women's javelin final; 13.50: Women's 4x100 metre relay final; 14.10: Men's 800 metres final; 14.15: Women's long jump final; 14.30: Men's 4x100 metre relay final; 14.55: Women's 1,500 metres final; 15.15: Women's 4x400 metre relay final; 15.40: Men's 5,000 metres final (Alistair Cragg); 16.10: Men's 4x400 metre relay final.
