Gillick and Cragg top gold hopes
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.
Cragg is due to fly to England from the US tomorrow afternoon and will be hoping to build on encouraging recent form after seeing the two years since Madrid more or less scuppered by injuries.
Derval O’Rourke is absent from the 13-strong squad as she has decided to concentrate on the outdoor season in 2007, but hopes are high that the rest of the Irish contingent can also contribute some encouraging performances.
“We are shooting for two medals,” said McGonagle. “We would be looking for another three or four finalists on top of that, maybe five. That would be a big step up. We would also be hoping to produce a national record or two. I see three possibilities for national records.
“There will be a number of goals for a number of athletes at different levels. They are all very clear in their own minds about what they hope to achieve. The days of going away and just filling the gaps are over. We have moved on.”
Cragg, Mark Carroll and Mark Christie are first into action for Team Ireland on Friday morning, with Galway’s Paul Hession, who recently broke the national 60m record, hopefully bringing the curtain down on Irish involvement with a place in the final on Sunday afternoon.
There was one surprise on the team announced yesterday, with David McCarthy of Le Cheile AC a late addition to the list for the 800m.
“We are glad to bring David on board,” said McGonagle. “He has given it a good shot in training over the winter months. He is a big player on our 4x400m relay team as well. We wanted to keep him alive, keep him competitive and Birmingham is one way to do that.”
Another member of the team is Gareth Turnbull, whose relationship with Athletics Ireland was seriously damaged last year when he was charged and eventually exonerated of a doping offence.
Turnbull chose not to compete in the European Cross-Country Championships last December which means Birmingham will be his first major championship in an Ireland singlet since the case against him was finally dropped late in 2006.
The Belfast man was highly critical of the lack of support he received from Athletics Ireland at the time and McGonagle admits relations between the two parties are still “not perfect”.
“Gareth is hurt and I can understand that. Everybody in Athletics Ireland understands that and we are working through that with Gareth. On another level, his response has been absolutely outstanding. His competitive response and his attitude.”
The European Indoors has been a rich seam of success for Irish athletics down the years with 15 medals won — seven gold — since 1966 by athletes including Eamonn Coghlan, Ray Flynn, Marcus O’Sullivan, James Nolan, Mark Carroll and Karen Shinkins.
