Gillick blasts Vieru after missing out on final following stumble

DAVID GILLICK’S hopes of making history by winning a third successive 400 metres title at the European Indoor Championships collapsed in his semi-final yesterday.

Having won his heat pulling up earlier in the day in 47.10 seconds it looked inevitable he would qualify for the final from a six runner semi-final field that was useful but certainly nothing exceptional.

But it turned into a nightmare for the defending champion after he ran into traffic difficulties at the half-way point and then attempted to rectify his position at 300 metres only to lose the battle against the Romanian, Ioan Vieru.

At this point Gillick was in third place and looking sure to make the top three and qualify automatically. But clearly the Irishman wanted to improve his position and so get a more favourable lane draw for the final.

But Gillick stumbled in his efforts to get past Vieru on his outside and a then after losing all momentum tumbled over. For a few seconds he sat on the track before getting up and ambling home last in 97.01 seconds.

Sweden’s Johan Wissman won in 46.38 with Vieru second in 46.61 and the third qualifying place going to Richard Buck of Britain in 46.76.

Gillick was fuming afterwards. “He cut me off twice” shouted Gillick from inside the barrier, having first refused to talk to the Irish media.

“There is no way that guy should be allowed run in the final. He moved out into lane two on two different stages and he should be disqualified.”

Irish Manager, Patsy McGonagle, lodged an appeal on the grounds that Gillick was hindered and demanding that he be reinstated in the final. However, it came as no surprise to learn an hour later that the appeal had been thrown out.

Vieru was adamant he did nothing wrong. “Gillick tried to force his way past me coming up to the 300 metres point and was really fouling me and pushing me towards the inside of the track” said the Romanian. “I feel sorry for him to go out like that but it had nothing to do with me.”

Gillick’s elimination came after a day of an outstanding series of successes by the Irish, beginning with two personal best performances by Marian Andrews of Cork and by Brona Furlong from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford in the heats of the women’s 400 metres.

Both athletes qualified for the semi-finals, Andrews improving from 54.20 to 53.94 in finishing third and a place in the next round as one of the fastest losers while Furlong qualified automatically when finishing second ion 53.84.

Andrews was fourth in her semi-final with another pb of 53.92 while Furlong was fifth in 53.96.

Roisin McGettigan qualified for tonight’s final of the women’s 1,500 metres as one of the fastest losers with a time of 4:12.25, having displayed commendable fighting qualities over the last couple of laps.

There was also success for David McCarthy from Kildare in the 800 metres when he qualified for today’s semi-final as one of the fastest losers in a time of 1:49.59, just a couple of tenths outside his best.

Zoe Brown’s record breaking feats in the pole vault came to an end when the Co Antrim athlete was eliminated after failing all three attempts at 4.25 metres (which would have broken her 4:20 Irish record) after taking two attempts to clear 4:05.

Ireland could have another finalist today after Mary Cullen runs in the heats of the 3,000 metres along with Deirdre Byrne.