ATHLETICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:NO ONE said it would be easy. He's drawn in lane six. He's got three men inside him with faster personal bests, one of whom is the third fastest ever. Two men outside him look pretty dangerous too. If David Gillick wasn't exactly sure how tough it is to make the World Championship 400 metres final he is now.
It simply means Gillick has got to run this evening’s semi-final as if it were the final. He’s looking to go where no Irish athlete has gone before and there’ll be no holding back. Only the first two are sure of progressing from each of the three semi-finals (plus the two fastest losers), and for Gillick that obviously means running the race of his career.
“This is the big one. This is it. This is my final,” said Gillick after coming through yesterday’s first-round heats. “I’ve got to look at it that way. Because so many of us are going to be gunning for that final. It’s so cut-throat as well. Only the top two automatic. So it will be very tight. I just know if I run very close to my best I can make it. Absolutely. That confidence is there from the times I’ve run this summer. I’m just looking forward to it now.”
Gillick’s 44.77 Irish record ranks him second fastest of the season among the eight starters in his semi-final. Times are one thing; experience and composure are another. It’s a given Jeremy Wariner, two lanes inside him, will qualify. America’s two-time defending champion is one of only nine men to run sub-44 seconds, his best of 43.45, the third fastest ever, set when winning his second successive world title in Osaka two years ago.
Also inside him are Leslie Djhone, the Frenchman with a best of 44.46, and Sweden’s Johan Wissman – both of whom made the final at the last World Championships and the Beijing Olympics. Outside him are Australia’s Joel Milburn and Britain’s Michael Bingham – both of whom looked fairly nifty in coming through their qualifying heats.
Gillick did enough to get through and at the same time gave nothing away. Going in the first of seven heats, he started well, then eased off, and in the end had to work a little harder than expected, taking second to Britain’s Robert Tobin – who ran 45.50 to Gillick’s 45.54. Four of the other heats were notably quicker – and it will assuredly take a sub-45 second clocking to make Friday’s final.
“Well I’m happy to get that out of the way,” added Gillick, “though I would have liked to have won it, I have to say. But I was a little blind coming around the top bend, and actually thought I was ahead. Next minute . . . Bang! I got a little bit caught. So I had to work a little bit more in the last 20 or 30 metres, but I don’t mind that. I’ve plenty of time to recover before the semi-final.
“If anything I think I will benefit greatly from having that run in my legs. It was an early morning start, and all that. So overall happy enough. I haven’t raced a 400 metres in three weeks, since Monaco, last month. So it’s just good to get it going.”
Truth is the 26-year-old Dubliner is the sort of athlete who does rely on his level of confidence, and that may have taken a bit of a dent by the way the qualifying rounds went. He’ll be a little blind out in lane six, but that can only reinforce his tactic of going hard from the gun, and hoping he’ll have the legs and nerve to survive. It’s going to be extremely tight either way.
Gillick was always going to get one American, and it could have been worse. LaShawn Merritt, the fastest in the world this year and Beijing Olympic champion, goes in the second semi-final, while Lionel Larry goes in the last one. Ramon Miller of the Bahamas also looked extremely cool when qualifying in 45.00, although Gillick’s task was lessoned somewhat when Congo’s Gary Kikaya, who has run 44.10, was disqualified from heat four.
At least there was no repeat of Gillick’s unceremonious first-round exit in Beijing last year – although that unfortunately was the experience for the two other Irish athletes in action in yesterday’s morning session. Deirdre Byrne went into the last of three heats of the women’s 1,500 metres knowing only a personal best would likely see her through, but instead she finished outside her season’s best, taking 11th in 4:12.19 and thus well short of qualification.
Deirdre Ryan was even further off form in her qualification group of the women’s high jump, clearing 1.85 metres on her final attempt, before failing in all three attempts at 1.89 metres – and therefore ending up next to last of the lot. These are the sort of performances which raise obvious questions about Athletics Ireland’s policy of sending athletes to the World Championships who have only qualified on B-standards. It’s tough out here, often a little too tough, as Gillick may well be about to discover.
