Lombard leaves nothing to chance

IT may be his first major assignment, but Cathal Lombard is approaching tomorrow’s 10,000m final at the world championships in Paris with a level of professionalism that has left nothing to chance.

The Dublin-based Cork athlete will not arrive in Paris until this afternoon - that was planned all along.

Doonan, who coached Catherina McKiernan to her sensational performances in both cross-country and the marathon, is never one to take any chances where his athletes are concerned. “We decided that I should get a hotel with air conditioned rooms as close as possible to the Athletes Village and, fortunately; I was able to do that.” So far it has been a sensational season for the man once regarded as something of a mudlark. But that all changed when he met up with

Doonan about a year ago and he began to focus on the track.

He created something of a sensation when he ran 28:05.27 for 10,000m at a British Milers Club meet and achieve the A standard for those championships. That, however, paled in significance when he went to Huesden in Belgium at the beginning of the month and ran 13:19.22 for 5,000m, inside the A standard not just for the world championships but for next year’s Olympic Games.

“This is the biggest event of my career,” he explained last night. “There is absolutely no pressure on me going into the race. And it is going to be a great race with Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Silesi Sihine there as well as Charles Kimathi and all the top 10k runners. Look down the list and you will find me there somewhere. Nobody is expecting me to do anything but I have my own target and that is to break 28 minutes and maybe, if it is hot too hot, to get close to Mark Carroll’s Irish record (27:46.82) and I will be very happy if I can do that.”

The A standard for next year’s Olympic Games is 27:49.00 and he has made no secret of the fact that he wants that on his CV alongside his 5,000m time with the dream of lining up alongside his Leevale clubmate, Mark Carroll, in Athens.

“It is possible to do it at the world championships,” he insisted. “Right now I feel great. OK, last week I was a bit tired after running two hard 5,000m races in a week but I rested and this week I was really flowing again.” The situation as regards the men’s 1,500m is that there will, after all, be three heats run this evening to eliminate five athletes. Gareth Turnbull is drawn in the third heat (5.16pm) and he will know exactly what he has to do to qualify but, with the first six the qualify along with six fastest losers he should have little difficulty making it.

The first heat (5pm) features the European champion, Mehdi Baala, who the French hope will topple the great El Guerrouj, who has held this title since 1997, and he lines up against another of the Moroccan’s adversaries, Bernard Lagat. Hicham El Guerrouj goes in Heat 2 while Turnbull has the other French medal hope, Fouad Chouki, who ran 3:30.83 a week ago to contend with along with the Russian Vyacheslav Shabunin and Rui Silva of Portugal. Paul McKee, the first Irish athlete in action at those championships, faces a tough assignment in Heat 2 of the men’s 400m (3.41pm) with the first three in each of seven heats to qualify along with the three fastest losers.

He runs in lane 7 and will have Daniel Batman of Australia. The Australian was involved in some rough and tumble stuff when they clashed in the world indoor championships in Birmingham.

McKee beat him into third place when he won his semi-final and then had him back in sixth position, behind David McCarthy when he dead heated for the bronze medal with Jamie Baulch.

The gold and silver medallists, Tyree Washington (USA) and Daniel Caines (Great Britain) are drawn in Heat 4.

Berhane Adere will be hoping for the first leg of a possible double when she lines up for the final of the women’s 10,000m this evening (7.15pm).

Marie Davenport from the Marian Club in Ennis will carry the Irish interest in this event.

Marie McMahon-Davenport goes into tonight’s race in possibly the best shape of her life. A former member of Ray Treacy’s winning Providence College squad, she also competed in the Atlanta Olympics. But she has been dogged by injury throughout her career and came back to full fitness just in time to post her qualifying standard for those championships with a 31:59.29 run which she underscored with a career best of 15:24.54 behind Sonia O’Sullivan at the Woodies DIY National Championships.