England's Sarah Claxton, who beat O'Rourke at last year's event, did it again as she went through the line in 13.04 seconds.

Upset at how her race was started, Cork woman O'Rourke, who came home in a disappointing 13.13, explained afterwards: "I wasn't set when the gun went. My positioning was all over the place. The others were gone by two metres so there's not much you can do about it.

"It hasn't happened to me before. Since I was kid, I've always been slow to get into my position. Maybe there's a problem with the starts because I heard David (Gillick) was disqualified in the 400. I'm just very disappointed and very annoyed."

Double European Indoor champion Gillick was guilty of causing the second false start as he "twitched" on the starting blocks, leaving officials with no option but to disqualify him.

But there was better news for Ireland's athletes in the earlier races at the Mardyke.

Kilkenny's Joanne Cuddihy showed admirable strength to hold off Guyana's Aliann Pompey and take the 400m in 52.26 seconds, Sligo woman Mary Cullen triumphed over 3000m in a time of 9:12.59, and Kildare native David Campbell claimed the scalp of Kenyan Laban Rotich in an exciting 1500m race.

Campbell, a former 800m specialist, clocked 3:42.20 to continue his recent progress although the time was down on his season's best of 3:41.81.

Following his heroics in nailing a new Irish 100m record in Vaala last week, the elements were unfortunately against Paul Hession in Cork as he sought to lower Paul Brizzel's national best over 200m.

Athenry flyer Hession, who has taken a break from his medical studies to concentrate on his track career, came home a brilliant first in 20.43 seconds - what would have been a new Irish best - but he had an illegal following wind of 4.7metres per seconds behind him.

Jamaica's Clem Campbell clocked the same time as Hession with the Irishman taking the win by mere thousandths of a second. Dubliner Gillick did actually run the 200 as he attempted to take something from the meet but he trailed home in 21.12 to take fifth place.

The Gillick-less 400 was won by Trinidad & Tobago's Ato Motibo in a time of 46.44 seconds with Belfast man Paul McKee the best of the Irish in fourth (47.05).

North Down sprinter Amy Foster was seventh in both the 100m and 200m, posing times of 11.80 and 24.18 with a following wind of +2.4. American Brianna Glenn (11.17) and Laverne Jones (22.67) of the Virgin Islands took victory in the respective sprints.

In the 1500 metres, Ireland's Roisin McGettigan was third behind Russian Olisia Tyurina who clocked a time of 4:25.11. There were also wins for Da Bryan Blanton of the USA in the 100m (10.14) with Derek Duff the best of the Irish in seventh (10.74), and Uganda's Moses Kipsiro was victorious in the 3000m, hitting the line in 7:47.03. Cork-born Mark Carroll came home in fifth in a time of 8:06.34.

Meanwhile in the field events, Dubliner Deirdre Ryan had a disappointing afternoon in the high jump as her best of 1.80m left her joint-sixth.

Grace Upshaw of the USA claimed first place in the long jump with a leap of 6.58, Germany's Nadine Kleinert took the shot putt crown with a throw of 18.80 and American Amy Acuff was top of the pile in the high jump with a considerable leap of 1.92m.

The men's high jump was won by American Jamie Nieto (2.25), Jamaica's James Beckford (8.09) claimed the honours in the long jump and Reece Hoffa of the USA was a class apart in the shot putt (21.47).