Gillick storms into semi-final but dream ends for Derval
Gillick was in good company when he went to his blocks for his heat in Lane 6 with the Olympic and world champion, Jeremy Wariner (USA) inside and his training partner at Loughborough, Martyn Rooney, outside in Lane 7.
The double European indoor champion caught the runners outside of him on the back straight before he was joined by Wariner on the bend and they ran shoulder to shoulder into the finishing straight.
Wariner, as expected, won the heat in 45.10 seconds from Avard Moncur (Bahamas), 45.27 secs, with Gillick a clear third in 45.35 secs, his second fastest time ever.
“I just wanted to get running,” he said. “I felt quite good out of the blocks, down the back straight and when I came into the home straight I just had to work hard. You can’t keep anything back in the world championships because there is no easy round.
“I felt I was going to have to run close to 45 seconds to qualify so I felt I needed to run my own race to do that. But, at the back of my mind, I knew he (Wariner) was going to come up on me. Because he is on 43.5, and 45 dead to him is a stroll in the park, so I decided to go with him when he came up. I knew he was not going to be going out full throttle,” he said.
“So when I got out well I was feeling comfortable and when he came up on me he did not pull away from me — he did not burn by me — he kind of stayed with me. I just hung by him and, in fairness, he probably helped me more than I helped him.”
He said that while he was proud of what he had done indoors, he was not taking any inspiration from it.
“This is all about the outdoors,” he said. “This is where the big boys play and that is where I want to be — I want to run against Wariner and the likes.
“I am not top five or top 10 in the world so I have to go out there and run every race as if I am running for my life. To get to the final I believe you want to be running sub-45. That’s how difficult it is out here. If I am going to be up there I am going to have to pull something out of the bag.”
Derval O’Rourke never got in a striking blow in her semi-final of the 100m hurdles. The world indoor 60m champion was drawn in Lane 1 in what was the toughest of the two heats and with the defending champion, Michelle Perry, and the other two women who finished ahead of her the previous day joined by the American champion, Virginia Powell, she was facing an enormous task coming from a somewhat fragmented season.
The race was won by Perry in 12.55 secs with the other three qualifying places going to Perdita Felicien (Canada) in 12.61 secs, and Vonette Dixon (Jamaica), 12.55 secs. Derval O’Rourke was eighth in 12.98 secs.
“It is very disappointing but that’s life and you just have to get on with it,” she said. “I have run 12.88 this season and I know I am better than that.
“I have had some problems this year and obviously they affected me a lot more than I hoped they would.
“Missing the indoor season is bigger thing than I realised. I was so injured I could not do indoors but I learned from that injury — I spent 10 weeks lying down when I did not need to.
“This is not the Olympics. I had a really good year last year and just need to build up for the Olympics next year. I just was not good enough tonight.
“I will run a few more races now and just sit down and draw up a plan for next year. Obviously it will be more low key now.”
Mary Cullen will get her campaign underway today in the heats of the women’s 5,000m.
And David Campbell is virtually certain to line up for the heats of the men’s 800m tomorrow. He has been recovering from a viral tummy bug but was looking stronger yesterday.
“He is very determined he will run,” said Dr Bill Cuddihy, team doctor.
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