Gillick to be named in world indoors team

DAVID GILLICK, the European indoor 400m champion, will be included on the team for the world indoor championships when it is announced next week although the early indications are that he will not travel.

The Dubliner had not intended doing an indoor season this year as he concentrated on his build-up to the new outdoor season after injury.

A prolonged period of injury kept him off the track for practically all of last year's outdoor season when he missed all the major events including the world championships in Helsinki.

Up to two weeks ago he was training and building up his strength and then turned to the indoor track to measure just how far he had come. He discovered he had come a long way.

"This winter I have been working with Will Heffernan, an Australian strength and conditioning expert who has come to Ireland," he said. "Originally I had not planned to run indoors, but I felt so good I decided to give it a go.

"At the AAA indoor championships in Sheffield I ran three 200m races all under 21.5 seconds including a pb of 21.36 and this weekend I ran two more. That's exactly what I had hoped to do," he pointed out after he had won the national indoor title over 200m at the Odyssey Arena.

"It certainly whets the appetite."

The selectors will be hoping that it will whet his appetite sufficiently to encourage him to change his mind about the world indoor championships and will be naming him in the squad for Moscow.

They have delayed announcing their team until next week to allow athletes time to decide what their intentions are.

"All the athletes who have qualified will be selected," High Performance Director, Elaine Fitzgerald, said. "They just have to be contacted in the meantime to see if they are available."

She said she will be talking to Alister Cragg over the coming days to make sure he is available and there appears to be no concern over his form despite the fact that he dropped out of a 3,000m race at the Tyson Meeting in Boston the weekend before last.

European indoor champion over 3,000m, he has his qualifying standard from last year as has Mark Carroll. The Corkman, however, is currently training in Florida and it is understood that a spring marathon is his target.

Top of the list for Moscow will be Cork starlet, Derval O'Rourke, who ran another world class time for a second national record in a week when she beat the world 100m hurdles silver medallist at the indoor championships in Belfast on Sunday.

A newcomer to the list is Emily Maher (Kilkenny City Harriers) who posted her time in the final of the 60m behind Anna Boyle who also broke an Irish record. Boyle, however, is heading for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

Ailish McSweeney (Leevale), who held the 60m record until Sunday, has her qualifying standard from last year and will travel.

David McCarthy has the standard at 400m, while Gillick has it from last season. Maria McCambridge, Roisin McGettigan and Mary Cullen all have the 3,000m standard. Maria McCambridge elected to run in Birmingham on Saturday rather than Belfast and finished down the field.

James Nolan is enjoying his best indoor season in a long time and has Moscow as a target. "I will run a 3,000m race in Ghent next week and if I can run comfortably under eight minutes I will be ready," he said after winning the 1,500m title on Sunday.

"I ran the race from the front to try and help the two young guys (David McCarthy and Ciaran Ó Lionaird) get the qualifying standard for the world junior championships, but unfortunately they just missed it," he said.

Ciaran Ó Lionaird ran a blinder into the final bend but died in the home straight as David McCarthy came from 20 metres down to snatch victory on the line.

"It just shows you never give up," McCarthy said afterwards. "When I heard the splits I knew I could not go with that pace so I just ran my own race and hoped he would come back to me."

Orla Drumm (UCC) was a very impressive winner of the women's 1,500m to complete what was an exciting two weeks. She ran three personal bests in seven days when winning in Cardiff in 4:25.01 before going on to run two 4:23s at the AAA championships in Sheffield.

Her coach Robert Denmead predicts that this just the beginning.

"My next target is the Universities Cross-Country championships on March 4 and, hopefully, I will be selected for the World Universities Cross-Country Championships in Algiers after that," she said.