Gillick and Cragg top gold hopes

EMULATING Madrid in 2005, where they won two gold medals, will be a tall order, but the Irish team travelling to Birmingham for the European Indoor Championships this weekend will still be expected to claim a pair of podium finishes.

Team manager Patsy McGonagle yesterday admitted as much and David Gillick and Alistair Cragg, who captured the 400m and 3000m titles in the Spanish capital two years ago, will again carry the burden of expectation.

Gillick has fully recovered from the bout of flu which prevented him from competing in the recent Irish Indoors and is expected to compete for gold in a strong field where England’s Robert Tobin and German champion Bastian Swillims will take particular watching.