Cragg and Carroll plot to plunder golden grail
Cragg, who has beaten Ethiopian pair Kenenisa Bekele and Marko Geneti this season, recorded 7.54.91 to win his heat and the favourites tag ahead of home town hero Reyes Estevez.
Estevez produced a sprint finish to win the second heat at the Palacio de Deportes Comunidad de Madrid with Ireland's Mark Carroll and his ally Gunther Weidlinger from Austria also qualifying.
The Spanish apart, all the attention is on Cragg. It's little wonder he looked both confident and comfortable with a succession 61 sec quarters before taking victory with ease.
His splits were solid if not remarkable 2:39.11 for the opening kilometre with his nearest rival Antonio David Jiminez of Spain some 30 metres behind. He eased up before puling clear again to stamp his authority on the race with a 2:35 final kilometre.
"I felt good. It got my heart rate going," said Cragg.
"It was not my plan to take it out. I would have preferred to sit in but then, there I was doing 61 sec quarters and I was 30 metres ahead of everyone.
"I was comfortable and as long as I wasn't straining on my own I was happy to be out there. I just let them reel me in and then I put in a hard quarter. I knew if they were strong enough they would come with me but I also knew that five guys would not be able to go because they had been working to catch up the whole time. The tactics were different to what I had planned."
Carroll had to work harder for his place in tonight's final. He had some familiar faces around him most importantly Weidlinger from Austria, third fastest European this year behind Cragg and Estevez.
"We discussed it beforehand. We wanted to make sure we qualified. We took a look at the top five and decided what it was going to take and we decided we would do whatever was necessary," said Carroll.
"Heats can be very messy. You have 10 guys in there on a small enough track. You get tripped or boxed or something and it's all over. My rule is either you go to the front or stay at the back. You get out of the way."
This time he opted for the former. He went to the front on the first lap, tracked by the Austrian with whom he would share the pace and he was back in front at 1,000m in 2:39.80. Weidlinger led at 2,000m in 5:17.95 before he and Carroll eased up before qualifying in third and fourth.
Yesterday Cragg and Carroll discussed tactics for tonight's final. Both are targeting medals and are well aware of the threat posed by Estevez.
"Speed should not enter into it as much as it would in other championships. That's if Alistair has his way which I think he will," insisted Carroll. "We are going to take it to Estevez. We are certainly not going to let him go out there and run a heat of the 1,500m and then think he is going to waltz around tonight and kick home in front of his fans.
"We are going to do everything in our power to break him. We are going to leave here tomorrow night and we are going to know that we could not have done any more. That's the bottom line. We are going to share it and we are going to do it together and I think Weidlinger is going to be involved as well. This is their party and we are going to try and upset it."
Field for final of Men's 3,000m: Reyes Estevez (Spain), John Mayock (Britain), Alistair Cragg (Ireland), Gunther Weidlinger (Austria), Mohammed Farah (Britain), Mark Carroll (Ireland), Mokhtar Benhari (France), Sergey Ivanov (Russia), Pavel Shapovalov (Russia), Pavel Naumov (Russia), Martin Proll (Austria), Henrik Skoog (Sweden).
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