February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
For Alistair Cragg in the 3,000 meters and David Gillick in the 400, the occasion was one to savor as the two medals were won in the space of an hour. A small, but vociferous, knot of Irish supporters shouted their approval as both Cragg and Gillick outsmarted Spanish athletes in the finals of their events Saturday.
Given his pedigree, success was not so startling for the 24-year-old Cragg, the South African-born but Arkansas-based distance runner, but the margin of his victory was. The seven-time NCAA champion during his time at the University of Arkansas destroyed the opposition with a blistering solo run that left him a comfortable 5 seconds clear of Britain’s John Mayock in a winning time of 7 minutes, 46.32 seconds.
As for the unheralded Gillick, a 21-year-old Dublin student, his gold was a first for Ireland in a major sprint event since Bob Tisdall’s 400 meters hurdles triumph at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. After some bumping ahead of him during the opening lap, Gillick finished strongly to pip the favorite, David Canal of Spain, on the run-in in a time of 46.30.
“People were standing and clapping me and, to be honest, I was speechless afterward,” Gillick said. “I didn’t know what to say; you live for a moment like that. I only wish I could do my lap of honor again. That’s the sort of stuff that will definitely motivate me to go further.”
His immediate task now is try to achieve the qualifying time of 45.55 for the World Championships, which will be held in Helsinki, Finland, in August. With an outdoor personal best of 46.29, he clearly has some work to do. However, he could lower that time when he competes in the European Under 23 Championships later in the season.
Cragg, who had been the only European in the 5,000 final at last year’s Athens Olympics, put on a demonstration of front running to claim his first major international title. With the initial pace cut out by his compatriot Mark Carroll, whose race effectively ended around the 2,000-meter mark, Cragg then took over and made it a procession to the line.
Coached by the famed John McDonnell at Arkansas, Cragg was realistic about the future despite this latest success.
“In the big scheme of things, no one really cares about the European indoors and how I won here,” he said. “The World Championships are where it’s really at, and if I’m satisfied with where I am now, then I’ll never be proven as a great runner.”
Possibly the most promising aspect of Cragg’s win was that he hadn’t planned on competing in Madrid after having had a hernia operation. However, his recent form had been so good that he thought he couldn’t turn down the opportunity.
Over all the years, only three other Irish athletes have won European indoor titles: Noel Carroll, Eamonn Coghlan and Mark Carroll. Then two more came along in the space of an hour.