I ran into Derval O’Rourke last Sunday at the Irish Indoor Championships, surprised to hear it was her first time inside the Sport Ireland Arena, considering in some ways she helped build it. At least in shaming the Government into eventually advancing on the place.
“Strangely enough was just thinking of you, and Moscow, how otherwise grim that trip was,” I said to her, and she said something similar back to me.
It must be 16 years this weekend – it is 16 years this weekend – since O’Rourke went where no Irish woman had gone before, winning a global sprint title at the 11th World Indoor Championships, staged in the vast grey grandeur that was the Olimpiyskiy Sport Arena. It was demolished in 2020.
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- March 5, 2022
