ATHLETICS O'Rourke 4th in 100m Hurdles Final

Derval O'Rourke put in one of Ireland's greatest ever performances at a World Championships to take fourth in the final of the 100m Hurdles in Berlin. O'Rourke smashed her own Irish record to record a time of 12.67 beating her previous record of 12.72 she set in 2006.

The Leevale athlete had a lightening start and was close to leading at half way before the rest of the field pulled her back but the 28-year-old had enough quality to push through in the last 50m and take fourth place in what was a truly world class field. The race was won by Jamaica's Brigitte Foster-Hilton in a time of 12.51 with Canada's Priscilla Lopes-Schleip second and Delloreen Ellis London from Jamaica in third just edging O'Rourke out of a medal.

Earlier O'Rourke put in an unbelievable performance to make the final. She came third in her heat in a time of 12.73 to take a place as a fastest runner up in the semi finals. The Leevale athlete was just one hundredth of a second off her Irish record as she qualified.

O'Rourke would have taken heart from David Gillick's performance in the 400m semi final as he had half an hour earlier secured his place in the final of the 400m in Berlin's Olympic Stadium. Gillick ran the race of his life to come home in a time of 44.88 to take fourth place. With the first two going through automatically the Dundrum South Dublin athlete had an anxious wait on the other two semi finals but ended up securing one of the two fastest runner up spots in an amazing achievement.

Gillick's time was just over a tenth of a second off his personal best and Irish record. His heat was won by American world champion Jeremy Wariner in a time of 44.69. Gillick will now run in the World final of the 400m at 8:20pm Irish time on Friday.

Paul Hession was unable to complete a memorable treble for Irish athletics as he missed out on joining Derval O'Rourke and David Gillick in Finals at the World Championships.

Hession finished sixth in his semi final of the 200m in a time of 20.48, which was slightly outside his seasons best of 20.40. The Athenry athlete would have had to break his Irish record to make the final with his semi final being won by America's Wallace Spearmon in a time of 20.14.