THE MOST crushing thing about the way David Gillick surrendered his European Indoor 400-metre title was that he didn’t even get an honest shot at defending it. At least not the way he saw it.
All the talk beforehand was about winning three titles in succession but in order to do that he had to make the final. Instead, and no doubt partly because of the pressure, Gillick allowed himself fall victim of some fairly standard pushing around in his semi-final, and with that fell crashing to the track, at least partly in disgust.
His immediate reaction was some very loud and very crude curse words, which he maintained through the mixed zone. There was no mistaking who they were directed at; the Romanian Ioan Vieru who had stubbornly refused him a way through coming into the final bend – resulting in Gillick’s catastrophe, at least by athletic standards.
Although he’d eventually got up and walked across the finish, a minute and 37 seconds after he started, it was fairly clear there would be no way through.
Sweden’s Johan Wissman had won in 46.38. Vieru was second in 46.61 and the Britain’s Richard Buck third in 46.76. They were the three automatic qualifiers and Gillick’s only hope was to appeal his apparent impingement.
Yet Irish team manager Patsy McGonagle was never hopeful. “We put the protest in,” he explained. “But in my experience it hasn’t happened before, because the lanes just are available. Unless they make a disqualification. I’ve looked at it a few times, and to be honest I have mixed views.”
Two hours later the verdict arrived: “The jury have reviewed the video. No report was made by the umpire or referee. On the basis of the evidence viewed there was no infringement of the rule 163.2 (regarding athlete impeding)” – signed by the three members of the Jury of Appeal.
Truth is it would have been unusual for Vieru to be disqualified, particularly when he was so adamant he had done nothing wrong. “First of all he pushed me,” explained the Romanian, “tried to get in front. Of course when he pushed me, I react. Also it was in the turn. It was very difficult to be pushing. But it was not my fault. He tried to force himself in front of me, from my outside. I’m sorry for him. I didn’t see him go down. This happens all the time.”
The hardest part for Gillick now will be wondering what could have been. The Italian Claudio Licciardello was fairly smoking in winning the second semi-final in 46.31, and all told it would have made for a fascinating final.
It was hard on the rest of the Irish team too that Gillick’s disappointment partly overshadowed so many positive Irish performances earlier in the day, particularly from 20 year-old Waterford long jumper Kelly Proper.
Despite a red flag on her first jump, Proper improved her Irish record to 6.59 seconds and that comfortably guaranteed her a place in today’s final.
“I’m just so happy” she admitted. “I came here full of hope and a lot of determination but to qualify for a European final like that gives me such satisfaction and now I want to go into the final and do myself justice again.”
Her record jump in fact left her in fifth place in joining the eight others in the final. Yet this performance was always on the cards since last summer, when she broke Terri Horgan’s 16 year-old Irish outdoor Irish record with a jump of 6.51.
“Kelly is just an extremely talented athlete,” explained Brid Golden (nee Hallissey) who coaches Kelly along with her husband, Alan. “We made some adjustments to her jumping over the last year and right now she is just beginning to reap the rewards of that work.
“Kelly is a very determined athlete and when she gets stronger in the next couple of years she can only get better and better. She is now in the final but will not be happy with that. She will want to do better again.”
Other Irish highlights yesterday included Marian Andrews and Brona Furlong both progressing from their heats of the 400 metres in personal bests – Andrews taking third in her heat in 53.94, and Furlong second in hers in 53.84. Later, Andrews improved her best again to 53.92 to finish fourth in the semi-final, one place ahead of Furlong, and while they left them short of a place in the final it was highly encouraging for the future.
Furlong, who two years ago won an All-Ireland camogie medal with Wexford, is in fact a 400-metres hurdles specialist, while Andrews, who in October will marry Irish race walker Rob Heffernan, has only been competing seriously for two years.
Roisín McGettigan also ran well to make the final of the 1,500 metres, even if her 4:12.25 only got her through as a fastest loser, and David McCarthy possibly surpassed even his own expectations to make the semi-final of the 800 metres, running 1:49.59 behind former Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, who won the heat in 1:48.10.
