Athletics: IAAF World Championships, Osaka

The best performance to date is Robert Heffernan’s heroic 6th place in the 20k walk. Right from the start Robert placed himself perfectly and never was too far of the medal positions. This was a battling performance from Robert, particularly in the extremely hot and humid conditions and was his best ever placing in international competition.

Other notable performances are those of Roisin McGettigan and Fionnuala Britton, who having come through the qualifying heats finished 10th and 12th respectively in the 3000m steeplechase.

After coming through the first round heat, Joanne Cuddihy smashed Karen Shinkin’s  eight year old Irish 400m. She became the first Irish women to break 51 seconds, narrowly missing out on the Final. However, her great effort has given her a qualifying time for next year’s Olympics.

  
Eileen O’Keeffe, (recent Silver Medalist in World University Games) only required one throw to achieve the automatic qualifying mark of 71m to reach the Hammer Final. Eileen was only one of five who achieved the automatic qualifying mark and now has a reasonable chance to make the top eight. She is our first automatic qualifier in Field events in Major International competition in 47 years since John Lawlor’s 4th place in the Rome Olympics in 1960.

David Gillick finished third in his heat in the 400m behind current Olympic and World Champion Jeremy Wariner and qualified for the Semi-Finals. The Semi- Final is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday.

After coming through the heats in the 100m hurdles, European Silver Medalist, Derval O’Rourke missed out on a final place after finishing 8th in her Semi-Final. Only one European, Sweden’s Susanna Kallur, the current European Champion, qualified for the Final. 

After coming through his heat in the 200m Paul Hession won his Quarter-Final heat in 20.50 seconds to qualify for Wednesday’s Semi-Final.

Michelle Carey finished 8th in the heats of the 400m hurdles, less than a second off a qualifying place.