Irish athlete beats personal best in 400m qualifier

Dundrum-South-Dublin's David Gillick whizzed home to a new personal best tonight in Madrid, easily qualifying for tomorrow night's 400 metres European Indoor final.

The 21-year-old - already marked out as the third fastest man on the continent this year - went one better as he clocked 46.17 seconds to finish first in heat 1 of the sprint qualifiers - and in the process, sliced 0.26secs off his previous best, set last month in Sheffield.

His main rival will be Spain's David Canale, who was fortunate to nab the fourth lane for the final with Gillick in five, with a heat 3 win in 46.72.

The other Irish in action in the 400 - David McCarthy and Rob Daly - failed to progress, although the latter did notch a season's best of 47.53.

The earlier Irish highlight on the opening day of the 28th Euros was the performances of middle distance hopefuls Alistair Craig and Mark Carroll in the 3000m heats.

While Carroll did enough to finish fourth (7 minutes, 55.18 seconds) for an automatic qualifying spot in heat 2, 24-year-old Cragg shone as he led from start-to-finish in the opening heat.

The University of Arkansas graduate eased up, timing 7:54.91 in a dominant display.

Afterwards he commented: "Will I try different tactics for the final? Well, we'll discuss that later. That's at least the pace we should be running at. I didn't notice that the Spanish guys (Francisco Javier Alvez and Antonio David Jiminez) in this heat are out even!"

Home favourite Reyes Estevez, however, is through, and will undoubtedly be Cragg's biggest challenger for gold when the duo clash tomorrow (7.15pm, Irish time).

Gillick will be in action at 6.30pm.