Kidd: Irish record on for Gillick
Gillick goes into the final on top of his form after running 44.88 in Wednesday night’s semi-finals to get through among the two fastest losers. Twice winner of the European indoor 400m title, this is his first final at a global championship so he will be covering new territory again.
In the past he appeared to lack confidence in his own ability at the penultimate stage but he has demonstrated clearly in Berlin that confidence abounds this time around.
Kidd puts much of that down to the fact that he considers himself as a consistent sub-45 second performer. He broke it for the first time in Madrid where he won the race in 44.77, followed that up with 44.82 at the Golden League meeting in Rome.
On Wednesday he was back in what is now a familiar realm. “And I would predict he will run faster in tomorrow evening’s final,” Jim Kidd said. “In the first round he lost momentum on the bend and he did the same in the semi-final last night.
“I think that loss of concentration or momentum or whatever cost him a metre and a half and if he rectifies the problem before the final he will break the Irish record again.”
Gillick approached Kidd as a teenager and asked him to coach him. At that time Kidd was coaching Gillick’s sister.
Kidd coached the Dubliner up to his first European indoor title and then advised him to look elsewhere. “I felt I had taken him as far as I could with the time available to me,” he said. “He had reached the stage where he needed a professional coach.”
Nick Dakin has proved to be just the man. At his base in Loughborough the partnership has worked admirably. Gillick has some good athletes to train with including Martyn Rooney who was a finalist in the 400m at the Olympic Games in Beijing last year.
And Dakin, too, predicts there is a lot more to come from the Irishman insisting he is going to make a huge contribution to the final.
“When he runs under 45 seconds now it is all familiar territory to him and that means a lot. I think he has the capability to break the Irish record again tomorrow evening. This has been a great week for Irish athletics and there is a very positive mood around the camp.”
Gillick drew lane two for tonight’s final but he was not complaining about the draw – Frenchman, Leslie Djhone, got the less favoured lane 1 and only a couple of athletes in history have performed well out of that lane.
Gillick insisted the pressure was now off after what had been a tough early season. “I don’t care what’s going to happen next. I’ve gone out this summer and run the legs off myself.
“I ran a national record and I ran under 45 seconds for the first time and I ran it for the third time in the semi-finals here.
“Look, I’m in the top eight in the world and the lane draw doesn’t bother me. I’m just going to go out tomorrow evening and I am going to enjoy it.”
He admitted he lost a little on the bend in the semi when he tightened up a little bit. “I knew I was going to go out quick, that was the plan,” he said. “When I came into the home straight we were all together and I kind of panicked a little bit and tightened up.
“I was just thinking in my head stay relaxed and I’ll come through and I did.
“To be honest, I didn’t think of times, I just felt get out here and run the race, it’s not about times now, it’s about who you beat.”
Jeremy Wariner is going for three titles in a row but the man between him and that achievement is fellow American LaShawn Merritt who stripped the Texan of his Olympic title last year.
Merritt starts out of lane 4 with Wariner in lane 6 and, in between, the perpetual fourth placer, Renny Quow (Trinidad) who was fourth in Beijing, fourth in the last two world championships and fourth in the Commonwealth Games.
Michael Bingham, born in the US and now competing for Great Britain, runs out of lane 8.
Jamie Costin and Colin Griffin will represent Ireland in the 50k Walk this morning (8.10am Irish time).
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