O'Keeffe smashes Irish record

Eileen O'Keeffe claimed Ireland's first victory at the European Cup First League 'A' match in Vaasa today in brilliant style when she smashed her national hammer record.

O'Keeffe, who set her previous figure of 69.36metres almost two years ago, threw 69.44m with her second effort then matched that figure with her very next throw.

Her consistency saw the Kilkenny woman finish ahead of the more fancied Merja Korpela and Mona Holm, the Finn and Norwegian producing best efforts of 67.87m and 67.11m.

O'Keefe said: 'It feels great to have won at an international fixture of this standing - there were some good throwers out there.

'I felt very good coming into the competition and when throwing 67m with my first attempt I was fairly certain I could go much further. I knew I was closing on it. Mind you, I didn't think I would do it twice so quickly.'

O'Keeffe who celebrated her 26th birthday just a few days ago, admitted she was hoping to attain the Olympic qualifying standard of 69.50m.

'I'm determined to get that as quickly as possible and there's an international meeting in Kerry shortly with good opposition where hopefully I can pull it off.'

Paul Hession also won over 200m to add to his second place in yesterday's 100m - but despite his efforts the Irish men were relegated after finishing seventh overall.

Hession was again in brilliant form and in a tight finish was given the verdict ahead of Sweden's European Championships silver medallist, Johan Wissman.

The pair, in a nailbiting encounter into a headwind, shared the same time of 22.61seconds.
World indoor 60m hurdles champion Derval O'Rourke, who is fighting to regain form after a late start to the season, was a creditable second in the 100m hurdles.

O'Rourke, who like O'Keeffe is coached by Jim Kilty, produced an excellent time of 13.00secs in only her third serious race since returning to action 10 days ago.

The Cork woman made Susanna Kallur, who beat her for the European silver medal last summer, fight almost to the finishing line, when lack of racing saw her run out of steam.

'I'm starting to get there,' said O'Rourke, after losing by 0.08secs to her outstanding Swedish rival after underperforming at last week's IAAF Golden League meeting in Oslo.

'I went to Oslo and my confidence was low as it was 10 months since I had competed and I had to remember what I had to do.

'Today I felt more like an athlete. There's still so much to do. But things are looking better.'

Roisin McGettigan was unfortunate to stumble at a barrier three laps out in her 3,000m steeplechase event, otherwise she may have matched O'Keeffe's victory.

The Irish record holder did manage to pick herself up and finish runner-up in 9minutes 54.44seconds behind Hatti Dean who lowered her British record to 9mins 42.66secs.

It saw the women maintain their First League status with a sixth-place finish as Norway and Slovakia dropped down a division.