Her time, with the wind at +0.6 m/s, shaves a significant seven-hundredths of a second off the previous national mark which she set in Lausanne on July 11.

And the omens for next month's European Championships are good - O'Rourke was the slowest out of the blocks tonight with a rection time of 0.209, so there should be room for further improvement this summer.

The 25-year-old broke Susan Smith's old record of 13.12 back in 2003, timing 12.96 at the European Under-23 Championships.

2006 has been an excellent year so far for the UCD graduate, starting off with gold in the World Indoor 60m hurdles final in March.

She also equalled her old 100m hurdles record at the BUPA Cork City Sports event on July 1 - in what was her first race of the outdoor season - and retained her national outdoor title last weekend in Santry.

USA's Damu Cherry finished first at the Helsinki event in 12.66, with Josephine Onyia of Nigeria in second (12.78).

O'Rourke, who won seven World Athletics Tour points for tonight's run, had clocked 12.94 at the Stockholm Grand Prix last night.