Gillick’s 400m hopes boosted after Dusseldorf triumph

DAVID GILLICK’S hopes of successfully defending his European indoor 400m title in Birmingham next month were given a huge boost in Dusseldorf on Tuesday night when he posted the fastest time of the season at 45.99 secs for what was a significant victory.

The Dubliner, now training in Loughborough, had been somewhat dubious about an indoor campaign, but the manner in which he disposed of the two Germans, Bastian Swilliams (46.07) and Sebastian Gatzka (48.17) was convincing enough to suggest that he may well go to Birmingham on March 2 as favourite for the title.

Now Alistair Cragg, the European indoor 3,000m champion, will be looking for a similar boost when he goes in the 3,000m in the Tyson Invitational at his local track in Arkansas.

Meanwhile, Irish star Derval O’Rourke will skip the coming Indoor athletics season in an attempt to concentrate all of her efforts on the World Outdoor Championships in Japan in August.

The World Indoor Champion, who recently returned from a month’s warm weather training in Portugal, feels she needs to focus on a different type of training regime in the first half of the year in order to build herself up for what will be a huge test in Osaka.

Outdoors in Osaka will undoubtedly act as an unofficial curtain raiser for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the Cork athlete is determined to put all of her energy into the Outdoor season in preparation for the upcoming World Championships at the end of the summer.

O’Rourke commented: “I am running really well at the moment and have been pleasantly surprised with how much progress I have made over the winter months.”

She added “It’s very tempting to go and run European Indoors in Birmingham at the end of February, as I know that I could go well there and potentially win a medal. However, I have to be disciplined and look at the bigger picture.”