Athletics/European Indoor Championships: Whether he's actually recognised or not, Alistair Cragg is now a wanted man. He's got the two fastest 3,000-metres times of the season, he's recently beaten a certain Kenenisa Bekele and he's very, very confident. Just to see him sit among the main stars of the European Indoor Championships was enough to realise he's here in Madrid to do business. Ian O'Riordan reports.
The 28th edition of these championships opens this morning at the refurbished Palacio de Deportes, which rests neatly in central Madrid. As a final build-up, the Spanish organisers presented five star athletes here yesterday, and put Cragg in the middle of them.
Around him sat the Olympic high jump champion, Stefan Holm; the two top French sprinters; and Spain's 400 metres champion, David Canal. All five of which are tipped to win gold medals over the next three days.
One of the main stars not there was Reyes Estevez, Spain's other gold medal hope and the man Cragg will almost certainly have to beat in tomorrow's 3,000 metres final.
It's possible Estevez spent the day in bed, because it later emerged he is to attempt a 1,500m-3,000m double, which has never been achieved in these championships.
It's certainly possible, and Estevez has the monstrous finishing kick particularly suited to indoor running, but what is certain is that Cragg is not bothered about anyone. Bring them on.
"I've raced bigger dogs than Estevez," said Cragg, speaking later in the day and in more discreet company. "I do have a lot of respect for him. He's someone I grew up watching. But I don't need to be scared of the situation.
"To me a seven-minute 40-second race is still a sit and kick. That should put a lot of pressure on a guy like Estevez, who would be stretched out at 7:40. He's got the raw speed, but I think the 3,000 metres is a lot more about strength."
Not since Sonia O'Sullivan was at her absolute peak in 1995 has such attention been focused on an Irish medal hope. That Cragg is the main threat to the home favourite certainly adds to that. Yet it's easy to forget that he represents just a small part of the strong Irish interest in Madrid this weekend, with former European indoor champion Mark Carroll also going in this morning's 3,000 metres heats thinking of a medal in tomorrow's final.
Cragg, though, is now operating in a higher class. His 7:39.89 clocking in Boston five weeks ago, the race in which he beat Bekele, remains the fastest in the world this year. Two weeks later he ran 7:40.53, and that remains the second fastest.
"Sure, I'm confident," he added, "and excited. To me having the fastest time doesn't make me the favourite, but it definitely puts me up there. Having Mark there is very exciting too, especially in such good shape. And I think we can control the race the way we want to.
"Any kind of logic would say we've got to take it to Estevez, we can't leave it until a kick. So we'll run hard, and make him work for it if he wants it. But we haven't discussed a precise plan. We'll get through the heats first."
That the Spaniard is attempting a double wasn't hugely surprising. He's got the next fastest 3,000 metres time after Cragg (7:43.80) and the second fastest 1,500 metres time after that gold medal favourite, Ivan Heshko of Ukraine.
Again Cragg breathes confidence: "Well, that's good for us. I think it will mean we should run a little harder in the heats. I certainly feel like I can run two hard races back to back. My 7:40 was run five weeks ago and I'm in better shape now. My coach, John McDonnell, was saying I was in 7:33 shape even then, and things have definitely come together."
At 24, Cragg has come a long, long way since his troublesome upbringing in Johannesburg. His story of Irish conversion has been told many times, and is traced back to his mother's great-grandparents, who left Dublin and Killarney almost a century ago to try their luck at the diamond industry in South Africa. He's been told his grandmother was born underground in the famous mining area known as Kimberly.
Today Cragg's only real concern is his recent history, which includes a 12th-place finish in the Athens Olympic 5,000 metres final, and more recently still that win over Ethiopia's double world-record holder.
"Obviously Bekele had a bad run of luck coming into that race, with the death of his fiancee. He's still the greatest distance runner around, but to see him struggling at a pace that felt pedestrian to me was exciting. I know I was nowhere near him last summer, so I do have some more inspiration now for next year and the year after."
Bekele is known to have misjudged his finishing kick, and yet Cragg still knows the value of that victory: "Well, I was disappointed when I saw him go wide for the finish, even though we had another lap to go. My heart just dropped. I knew what people would say. I knew I couldn't have gone with him at 300 metres if I was planning to beat the guy. But I was getting ready to pounce again."
Last August Cragg was particularly hard on himself after his Olympic final, but it's now known he ran all summer with a hernia problem.
"I don't think what happened in that final was anything to do with my ability. I'd picked up a hernia injury last year, but I let it go. By October I knew I needed surgery. That happened in late November, and within three weeks I was running better than I was all last summer.
"So something must have been wrong last summer because I haven't felt this good in my life. And every year I do feel stronger, and want to run quicker than the year before. That's how it should be. Anyway, this is my first real opportunity in an Irish vest to really show what I have."
Cragg is far from the only Irish athlete to bring that mentality to Madrid. Today's opening session features 11 of the 16 team members, and of those David Gillick (400 metres) and James Nolan (1,500 metres) certainly won't be satisfied with anything less than a place in the final.
