ATHLETICS/WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:JUDGING BY his reaction at making the World Championship 400 metres final you might think David Gillick's work here in Berlin is done. Not exactly. He goes in this evening's final not expected to medal and the truth is probably not yet able to medal, but that doesn't mean he won't be going like the clappers, as some might say.
And isn’t the oldest lesson in athletics that once you make the final anything can happen? Derval O’Rourke’s performance here on Wednesday night was a timely reminder of that. Although Gillick only qualified as the fastest loser from his semi-final, he’s actually joint fifth fastest this summer of the eight finalists. If one or two guys under-perform he’s obviously not without some chance.
He definitely has one advantage: absolutely no pressure: “I don’t care that people always go on about medals,” he says. “Blah, blah, blah. I’m already in the top eight in the world. I’m just going to go out on Friday and enjoy it. I don’t care what’s going to happen next. I’ve come out this summer, run under 45 seconds for the third time today, and got myself in a World Championship final. So I’m going to enjoy it now.
“To be honest I’m not thinking of times anymore either. Ever since I was a kid, all I wanted to do was be a world-class runner. I wanted to approach my sport as professionally as I could, and I finally feel like I’m doing that now.”
Everything about this evening’s final is world class. It features Jeremy Wariner, the two-time defending champion and third fastest man in history, plus his American team-mate LaShawn Merritt, the fifth fastest man in history, who upset Wariner to win the Olympic title in Beijing last summer. There’s also Chris Brown of the Bahamas, who finished fourth in the last two championships and also in Beijing, but who looks intent on getting his just reward this time.
Gillick won’t be too upset either about running out of lane two – although it’s almost certain the medals will be decided in the middle lanes, between Wariner, Merritt, Brown, and Rennie Quow of Trinidad. My money is on Merritt. Gillick must surely have one eye on his national record of 44.77 seconds, because it could be a while before he’s in a race of this quality again.
He hasn’t denied the idea that what has helped make the difference this year is his more relaxed approach to the sport, having put himself under enormous pressure to perform in Beijing last summer, and bombing out instead. He pointed to that again after his semi-final on Wednesday, where he ran 44.88 to go where no Irish athlete has gone before.
“I’ve been rooming with Paul Hession, and we’ve had good craic. There we were before our semi-finals, with a little coffee table under the mattress of our beds, so we could put our legs up. I think I have been a lot more chilled out here.”
O’Rourke, meanwhile, leaves Berlin this morning looking forward to next Friday when she lines up again over the 100 metres hurdles at the Zurich Golden League meeting. Zurich has always prided itself on restaging the finals of the major championships, and O’Rourke’s fourth-place finish on Wednesday earned her an invitation – and a handy appearance fee. The €10,000 she picked up for coming fourth will also go some way towards meeting her training expenses, particularly after her grant was chopped in half this year, to €20,000.
