Carroll comfort for Cragg
Cragg begins his bid for Irish gold today, trying hard to play down his status as favourite in the 3,000 metres but talking up the potential of his partnership in the event with Irish team-mate Carroll.
Cragg, 24, has posted the top two fastest times indoors for the distance in the world this year and is almost four seconds faster on current form than the next man on the list, Spain’s Reyes Estevez.
Austrian Gunther Weidlinger comes next on the performance list for 2005 with Leevale star and former European Indoor champion Carroll occupying fifth and sixth spots after a strong indoor season in the US.
“I don’t know if I’m favourite,” Cragg said. “Times are one thing, going into a race situation is completely different. But I’m pretty confident, and a lot more confident that Mark Carroll’s in there with me.”
Since turning professional Cragg has retained the services of his collegiate coach at the University of Arkansas, Irish man John McDonnell. He has also remained in Fayetteville and though he has completed his eligibility as a student athlete he is finishing his studies there.
The Johannesburg-born runner reached the Olympic 5,000m final in Athens last August at the end of his first summer as a pro and is not fazed by the increased pressure on him to perform well in an Irish vest.
“I think it’s exciting,” he said. “The Irish have expectations for a medal on the men’s side and Mark Carroll was the last in 2000, and it’s exciting. This is what you train for and do everything for, to get yourself into these kinds of situations. I’ve got experience on the line with me, having Mark there, and he’ll keep me relaxed.
“As long as we run it the right way I’m confident we can pull off a good championship for us. We’ve just got to figure out how to do it and make sure the race is quick enough for us to benefit from having those fast times. We’ve both got to run smart.
“We haven’t spoken about it yet, I want to wait until we get there before we decide what we’re going to do but it’s pretty logical. If you’re racing against guys with big kicks then obviously we don’t want to leave it too late,” Cragg said before adding bluntly, “Mark’s getting old and he doesn’t have the speed he did five years ago and I just don’t have those kind of wheels. So we’ve got to run smart and to our kind of pace.”
Despite Cragg’s perception that he and Carroll are a couple of plodders, both men have had excellent indoor seasons so far. Corkman Carroll, based in Providence, Rhode Island, ran to victory in Boston at the end of January in a time of 7:46.60 before clocking 7:46.78 to claim third behind Cragg and Ethiopian Markos Geneti at the Tyson Invitational event on his team-mate’s home track in Fayetteville, Arkansas, two weeks later.
The consistency will be especially pleasing to Carroll given the injuries which ruined his London Marathon debut and then saw him exit the Olympic 5,000 metres at the first-round stage.
Cragg’s performances have been even more remarkable. Following his 12th-place finish in Athens, he went under the surgeon’s knife to correct a hernia problem and was not even considering running an indoor season. He travelled to the Reebok Boston Indoor Games in January without having completed any speed work in training, yet came away from his 3,000m race, not only having posted a world-leading time of 7:38.89 but also claiming the notable scalp of world outdoor 5,000 and 10,000m record holder Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia.
“It has gone well,” Cragg said. “I was going to skip indoors because of the surgery I had. I just started working out on the track in early January and three weeks later I was flying. After one race I realised what kind of shape I was in.”
1 Alistair Cragg (Irl) 7:39.89 Boston 29/1.
2 Cragg (Irl) 7:40.53 Fayetteville 11/2.
3 Reyes Estevez (Esp) 7:43.80 Stockholm 15/02.
4 Gunther Weidlinger (Aut) 7:44.32 Stockholm 15/2.
5 Mark Carroll (Irl) 7:46.60 Boston 28/1.
6 Carroll (Irl) 7:46.78 Fayetteville 11/2.
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