Relaxed approach paying off for Gillick

A LITTLE under a year ago, David Gillick’s world was caving in around him. His Olympic 400m campaign came and went in 45.83 seconds as he failed to progress beyond the first round in the Bird’s Nest Stadium.

He cut a desolate figure as he left the track that August day as he reassessed how things could have gone so drastically wrong on the world’s biggest stage.

Fast forward now to 2009 and Gillick’s sensational 400m runs in Madrid (44.77) and Rome (44.82) has him front and centre in the countdown to the world championship in Berlin later this month.

So what changed?

“I did not enjoy my athletics last year,” he admitted. “I got the year off to a bad start. I had an achilles problem throughout October and November so I missed a bit of training. Then I started playing catch-up and it put me under a lot of pressure.

“I came back training with Martyn Rooney who finished sixth in the Olympics and is a precocious talent, and he was in good shape and running really well and I wanted to get back up there. I put so much stress on myself that I picked up an illness. In any walk of life if you get too stressed out you just get ill. That’s what happened to me.”

He agreed: “The Olympics were poor. I took a month off and chilled out. I said to myself if athletics is the thing that I do, then I have to learn to control it as being a part of my life and not all my life.

“I decided I was going to enjoy the winter training — I’m going to go out on the Saturday and have two or three beers. Not go mad, just make sure that I am relaxed and that I am enjoying life.

“The previous year I was too focused on everything — too focused on nutrition, too focused on getting to bed early — it just got too much. I cracked.

“This year, it was different. I had a good, solid winter and then I went out to LA in March and April and trained well out there and raced well out there and I came back and maintained that frame of mind — just going into races relaxed and just running.

“I think I was over-analysing races before thinking: I have to do this, I have to do that and breaking it down.

“I’m taking care of myself with regular routine, regular physio, regular massage and looking after my diet. All those little things. The way I view athletics is like the wheel of a bike — your most important thing will be your training and that’s the axle and you have all these little spokes coming out which will be your nutrition, your physio, your massage, psychology; even psychology will be probably the rim on the outside because that’s so important when it comes to a race.

“But all these little things have to be monitored because they will have a good effect on the way you perform. I have been looking after myself quite well and I have been a lot more selfish this year as well. Last year I was almost too polite. When people wanted something I would say no problem, I’ll do it, and I was flying here, flying there and all that kind of stuff.

“The season goes right through from June to September and if you are on the circuit you’re flying once or twice a week and with all that travel you are breaking your routine, you are not eating what you usually eat and all those kind of thing so you have to factor that in and address it as well.”

He is enjoying life in the fast lane. Breaking 45 seconds has opened many doors for him — Golden League in Rome, Super Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, but, the most important thing is, he now feels comfortable in the company of the superstars of athletics.

“I enjoy the big meets now,” he said. “Last year and the year before I might have felt a bit overwhelmed by something like the Golden League thinking ‘shit, this is the big one’. Those are the ones you watch Sonia O’Sullivan win and go: ‘Wow! It’s huge!’

“This year I look at it like, at the end of the day it’s 400m around. It doesn’t matter what’s built around the track, it’s still 400m and whoever is in it, is in it. Just get out and run.

“The national record and running sub-45 has helped me get into those meets. It was great to race in Monaco. It’s the playground of the rich. It’s phenomenal to see it.

“The Olympic champion was in it — it had a big meet field — a good line-up and you gain all the experience you need running against those people week after week and then it goes to worlds or Olympics where you have those guys in your heats, your semis and your final and it’s just another race. That’s the kind of experience you gain.”

This weekend he is back on the home front and heading to the Morton Stadium for the Woodies DIY national track and field championships.

Strangely the 400m isn’t his specialist topic this weekend.

He explained: “My personal best isn’t great for 200. I actually hate running 200s,” he revealed. “Sometimes when you run a 400 and you drop down to 200 you want to run fast and when the gun goes you tense up. It is a learning curve and something I can improve on.

“I am running 200m this weekend. I raced on Saturday in Barcelona and I raced again on Tuesday in Monte Carlo and only came back yesterday.

“I don’t get the opportunity to run too many 200m races so it is nice to be able to have the chance. All my times have moved on and I have become a better athlete but because I don’t run 200s I never get the opportunity to bring that down. With 200s the wind can be a factor and it can be a bit blustery in Santry so hopefully it will be a legal wind. I want to get something from it."