David Gillick wins gold at Europeans Indoors

03 Mar 2007

A Gold Medal and three Irish records on the second day of action at the European Indoor Championships.

You had to be up early this morning to catch Paul Hession and Anna Boyle who both once again lowered the Irish records to 6.61sec and 7.30sec but the day belonged to one man, David Gillick who secured his second European Indoor Gold medal in a time of 45.52 sec a new national record. This record brought remarkable double success for the Dubliner today; it secures qualification for the World Championships this August in Osaka, and for the Beijing Olympics next year.

Gillick who competes for DSD made easy work of the rest of the field. In what was meant to be a four horse race with the Swede Wissmen included in the equation Gillick breezed past Swillims of Germany 45.62 in the final 50m who finished second and left Tobin of GBR for dead in the first lap whom finished in third place 46.15.

David Gillick “Can I ask for more, my second gold and a new national record. I knew it was going to be tough but I felt great in the last bend and knew I had it coming off the corner. I had alot to prove and this proves im back…I’m looking forward to a great summer, ”

In the 60m semi finals Anna who looked in fantastic from struggled to get on terms with the other semi finalised finishing in 6th place in a time of 7.63sec meanwhile Paul Hession booked his place in tomorrows final with a time of 6.64 in 4th place.

Paul said: “I’m in the final, its 60m and as we all know anything can happen. I just can’t wait to get out there again as I’m feeling fantastic.”

The afternoon session saw all our middle distance men on the start line both Thomas Chamney and David McCarthy went in separate semi finals in the 800m but both unfortunately failed to make the final after going looking strong until fading in the final stages Thomas 5th 1.50.48 and David 4th 1.49.37.

Gareth Turnbull in the first semi-final of the 1500m failed to make an impact in the race finishing in 3:52.20 missing out on tomorrows final and there was mixed fortunes in the second semi-final where James Nolan 4th and Liam Reale 9th crossing the line in 3.43.57 and 3:47.94 had chances of qualification, James went through but unfortunately for Liam he missed out on a fastest runners up spot.

James: “I’m in the final, thats where i should be.”

Alistair Cragg went in what had to be the hottest race of the day with European 5000m champion and European cross country champion both present in the race which traveled at a pedestrian pace and turned out to be a 400m burn up where 7 men with 200m to go all had a shout of winning in the end up Cragg couldn’t match the pace of the others and faded to 6th position in 8.03.70.

Tomorrow we will see Mary Cullen in the women’s 3000m final, James Nolan in the 1500m final and Paul Hession in the 60m final.

Patsy McGonagle, Team Manager: “It has been a crazy day. We started of in the best of fashions with the two sprint records. In the afternoon the lads in the 800m were really unlucky not to make the final. I’m pleased for James and Paul to reach their finals, Alastair was always one of our hopes for a medal but this is athletics and there was a lot of talent in the 3000m, it was arguably the hottest event of the on track but I’m more than sure that Alastair will be back stronger than ever in the summer but I have to say that watching David for the second time win gold was fantastic and the day belongs to him and I hope he enjoys it, I know the rest of the team will”.

Tomorrow's Event Times ALL FINALS:

15.25 3000m – Mary Cullen
15.50 500m – James Nolan
16.20 60m – Paul Hession