Positive Cragg aiming to deliver ‘special’ performance at last

ALISTAIR CRAGG has been something of an enigma since first donning the Irish singlet.

Despite mixing it regularly with the Africans on the Grand Prix circuit he has failed to deliver in a major championships. In fact his only title to date is the European indoor 3,000m title from Madrid on the night David Gillick won the first of his two 400m titles.

The world championships have been a disappointment and he dropped out of the 5,000m at the European championships in Gothenburg when he appeared to have the race at his mercy.

Last year, too, he failed to finish the final of the 5,000m at the Olympic Games in Beijing. But that is all about to change, according to the Irish team manager at the world championships in Berlin, Patsy McGonagle.

“I have never seen Alistair Cragg so positive and I have been around him a long time,” said McGonagle who is also Chair of High Performance with Athletics Ireland.

“We saw him at the national championships in Santry where he won the 5,000m and while he did not set the place alight, timewise he looked very strong.

“Since then he has been in touch with me on a regular basis and that, too, is something new. He has been training with the American group of middle distance runners at their camp in Milan and it appears to have worked wonders.

“I will be very surprised if he does not at least qualify for the final and I think he is capable of making a big contribution to that race. I feel he wants to do something really special.”

And he will get his campaign under way this evening when he lines up for the heats of the 5,000m (5.55pm Irish time).

The biggest question surrounding the men’s 5000m in the lead up to the declarations was whether the Olympic champion, Kenenisa Bekele, would double up over the 5000m after his overwhelming performance in the 10,000m final when he maintained his sensational winning streak.

The 27-year-old won both events in Beijing and although Bekele has collected a substantial number of titles the world 5000m is not one of them but now he appears set to put the record straight by doubling up in Berlin.

He has won three Olympic golds and a total of 14 World titles in cross country and track (four at 10,000m).

In Osaka Bernard Lagat, representing the USA these days, won both the 1,500m and 5,000m. Whether he lines up today remains to be seen as well.

The only runner born outside of Africa to win this particular title is Eamonn Coghlan who won the 5,000m at the inaugural championships in Helsinki in 1983.

Cragg goes into today’s heat with an excellent chance of making the final. With the top five in each of two heats to be joined by the five fastest losers he should emerge among the fastest, at least, from a heat that includes five sub 13 minute men.

Thomas Chamney goes in the first of seven heats in the men’s 800m (10.45am Irish Time) when he will face two 1:43 men, Nick Symmonds (USA) and Ismail Ahmed Ismail (Sudan) and two 1:44 men, Belal Mansoor Ali (Burundi) and Josef Repcik (Slovakia).

The first three in each heat go through to the semi-finals where they will be joined by the three fastest losers.