Gillick powers his way into semis
The European indoor champion will contest his semi-final from Lane 5 and, while his best time of 45.67 seconds places him sixth amongst his competitors, his fighting performance in yesterday’s first round heat would indicate there is more to come.
After running a strong first 200m, the 23-year-old Dubliner kicked off the final bend to finish second in 46.16 secs behind Great Britain’s Tim Benjamin to gain a prime lane draw.
“On paper I am not meant to be in the final but now I have given myself every opportunity to get there and then who knows what will happen?” he said.
“But it is going to be difficult. You saw my heat today. We all went into the last 100m in a straight line and that, in itself, speaks volumes for the strength and dept that the 400m has at those European championships.
“I did not want to get the third place to qualify because that would have meant I would get a worse lane in the draw for the semi-finals — maybe an outside lane. I was going to have to go out fast and go for a second place.
“That’s what you have to do in those competitions. You have to give yourself the best opportunity to get to a final and do well.
“I did not go off too fast. Down the back straight I was keeping an eye on how Benjamin went. I wanted to see if he was going to go out quick or what and then when I came to about 150m to go I realised we were more or less all in a line and I was going to have to put it up a gear and work a little bit down the home straight.
“I felt I had enough time to have a look and see where everyone was. I felt okay. I was actually surprised I had so much in the tank.
“I felt confident out there. To be honest I just wanted to get out and run. I wanted to get into the stadium. It is a great atmosphere. The last couple of days I have been sitting around, waiting for my race.”
Yesterday he had Benjamin on the outside. Today Benjamin, fourth fastest in Europe this year with 45.38 secs, will be inside him in Lane 4 while he has the gold-medal favourite, Leslie Djhone of France, who ran 44.91 in Lausanne, outside him in Lane 6.
With the first four to go through to the final, Gillick, who has run faster than yesterday’s 46.61 three times this year, must up his performance another notch to become the first Irishman to qualify sprint final at a European championships.
Meanwhile, Paul McKee was handed Lane 9 for his first-round heat yesterday but his troubles did not end there because he was the last one to have his blocks placed on the track because the Heptathlon competitors, including Carolina Kluft, were warming up for the high jump.
“They did not take the blocks out until the last minute and the athletes were still jumping in my way. The whole time I kept asking the officials to move them. In between on your marks and get set I had Eunice Barber actually standing in front of my blocks. It was like a joke,” he said after failing narrowly to make it through among the fastest losers.
“I would not have minded Lane 8 but Lane 9 was difficult and unusual to say the least. I am obviously very disappointed not to qualify.
He ended up fifth behind Daniel Dabrowski of Poland in 46.48 secs but tied on time with fourth placed Zeljko Vincek of Croatia and was hanging on to a qualification place until the final heat.
“If I was in the best shape of my life I would have managed to qualify but I felt tired coming off the bend. I have run quicker in my last three races,” he said.
From the final heat, Ireland’s third representative at 400m, David McCarthy, failed by just .07 of a second to go through when he finished sixth behind Marc Raquil of France, who recorded the second fastest time of the heats at 45.65 secs.
“I could have done with another couple of weeks.,” McCarthy said. “You run a season’s best and you get knocked out. You just don’t know how to feel but it is disappointing.”
He ran a solid first 200m, held his own around the top bend but had nothing in reserve in the home straight, although he rallied to produce a fighting finish.
“Even down the straight I knew it could have been a quick heat,” he said.
“There was a guy a couple of lanes inside me and I knew if I got past him I would have a chance of qualifying. I dipped him on the line but missed out by .07. Maybe I could have made that up around the top bend. It was a good run but it was not enough.”
Eileen O’Keeffe was promising a big throw that would get her through to the final of the women’s hammer when she fouled her third and final attempt.
Her best throw of 65.07m placed her 17th overall with the top 12 to qualify — two of those beating the qualifying mark of 70m, Tatyana Lysenko (Russia), 73.23 for a championship record, and Betty Heidler (Germany), 71.40.
“In the hammer throw it is very different from the track in that the world’s best are in Europe. There is not much difference between the world championships and the European championships. Even to be in the top 15 or 20 here that is a good position to be in,” said O’Keeffe.
Michelle Carey, a Leicester-based teacher, finished fifth in her heat of the women’s 400m hurdles in 57.61 secs but admitted that it was her technique that probably let her down.
“I have to go and work on my technique. Off my flat speed I should be running 55 seconds. There is a lot of room for technical improvement for next year and I feel quite positive about that,” she said.
