Hamstring casts doubt over Gillick's world ambitions

ATHLETICS: A disconsolate David Gillick left the German town of Erfurt yesterday having endured the flip side of success just four months after his European Indoor triumph in the 400 metres. A hamstring injury prevented Gillick from starting in Saturday's European Under-23 final, and his main concern now is to recover in time for this weekend's national championships, and ultimately next month's World Championships in Helsinki.

The Dundrum athlete had targeted the event as his first true test of the outdoor season, and was intent on coming away with a medal. But after Friday's heats it seemed all was not right.

Gillick struggled home fourth in that race, at which stage it became clear he would be risking far worse damage to his hamstring if he ran in the final.

Irish team manager Neil Martin explained the reasons behind his withdrawal.

"It was an extremely disappointing decision that had to be made, but in the circumstances it would have been very unwise to allow him to race," said Martin.

Two weeks ago Gillick decided to withdraw from Cork City Sports when he first felt the hamstring problem.

"After the semi-finals he was so looking forward to running in the final, but perhaps running those two hard races in successive days just took their toll. If he had a day's rest in between it could have been so different," added Martin.

As expected, the gold medal was won by Britain's Robert Tobin but in a rather routine time of 46.81 seconds. Germany's Kamghe Gaba appeared poised to challenge the British runner off the final turn, but he faded in the home straight and took silver in 47.07, as Poland's Daniel Dabrowski won bronze in 47.44.

In the biggest upset of the championships, Kevin Hautcoeur of France sprinted past four runners over the last 20 metres to claim gold in the 800 metres; his 1:51.29 was indicative of the tactical nature of the final.

That left Ireland's Thomas Chamney in fifth, and he had the consolation of knowing he gave it his best shot and there will be better days ahead. His time of 1:51.82 was less than a second behind the winner in what was a true blanket finish.

Anna Boyle also ended up joint fifth in the 100 metres, clocking a personal best of 11.57 seconds.

And Wicklow's Fionnuala Briton was ninth in the 3,000 metres steeplechase, clocking 10:17.58 behind Poland's winner, Katarzyna Kowalski (9:54.17).

The championships concluded last night with another fine run by Martin Fagan, who took fifth in the 5,000 metres final just 48 hours after taking fourth in the 10,000 metres. The Mullingar athlete clocked 14:16.28 in another tactical race, and underlined his exciting potential in the process.

Mark Christie took seventh in the 1,500 metre final in 3:48.76, while Boyle clocked her second personal best of the weekend when taking fifth in the 200 metres in 23.78.

Back at home, Dublin's Brendan O'Neill earned himself some consolation for missing out on a medal at last week's European Youth Olympics in Lignano, Italy, by winning the 3,000 metres at the Kit Kat International Schools championship in Tullamore on Saturday.

O'Neill looked to have the silver medal in his back pocket in Lignano but then tripped and fell on the final lap. On Saturday, however, he dominated from the gun and comfortably beat Britain's Lee Carey in 8:33.84.

Down sprinter Amy Foster, who won silver in Lignano, claimed another Irish victory in the 100 metres, followed that with silver behind England's Jasmine Rowe in the 200 metres, and finished up by anchoring Ireland to silver in the 400 metres relay.