Cragg, Gillick lead the hunt for medals

ATHLETICS/World Indoor Championships: Moscow is probably not the luckiest place for Irish athletes. Think of the 1980 Olympics, when Eamonn Coghlan finished fourth (again) and John Treacy fell within sight of qualifying for the 10,000 metres final. Treacy ran well to take seventh in the 5,000 metres but they were the highlights.

That at least contrasts with the World Indoor Championships, which have been quite good to Irish athletes. When they were first staged in 1987 Coghlan famously fell, but Marcus O'Sullivan and Frank O'Mara both won gold, and Paul Donovan silver. Since then we've collected three more gold medals, another silver, and two bronze - including the 400 metres relay in Budapest two years ago.

But that's probably not enough reason to get overly excited about these three-day championships. Consider the presence of Alistair Cragg and David Gillick and you have something well worth tuning in for. A year after they won European Indoor titles both Cragg and Gillick will lead the hunt for medals or at least a place in the finals, although if Derval O'Rourke gets even a little quicker over the 60 metres hurdles we could be in for something very special.

The only problem with Cragg and Gillick this time around is that neither has been fully tested over their chosen distances this year - the 3,000 metres and 400 metres respectively. Cragg dropped out of his only 3,000 metres of the season last month, while Gillick has only run a few 200 metres and limited the rest of his preparations for Moscow to training.

When he went to European Indoors in Madrid a year ago Cragg had run the fastest time in the world (his 7:39.89 Irish record) and also beaten the new emperor of Ethiopian distance running, Kenenisa Bekele. The feeling was Cragg would have beaten anyone in Madrid, but rather than build on that success the rest of 2005 was wrecked with injury, and so far the story of 2006 hasn't been much better.

More worryingly, the difference between European and World indoor running will be fully revealed in Moscow. Bekele has made the trip along with his younger brother Tariku; Kenya have sent their best man Eliud Kipchoge, and Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar, the steeplechase artist formerly known as Stephen Cherono, has lethal finishing speed.

For Cragg, the only 3,000 metres of the season took place at the home track of his US base at Arkansas and, having run a 3:55.04 mile a few weeks before, he was supposedly ready for a big one. Instead he walked off the track when the pace heated up with three laps remaining, and could only watch as Kenya's Boaz Cheboiywo won.

Cragg has found it hard to talk about that race. There was obviously some crisis of confidence, and confidence is the very thing Cragg feeds off. The one man who possibly knows Cragg as well as himself is John McDonnell, his Mayo-born coach who has acted as a father figure since Cragg settled in Arkansas six years ago.

McDonnell admits the DNF hurt Cragg badly, but no one will know exactly what lingering effect it may have on him until he toes the line in this morning's heats.

"Personally I wouldn't be too worried about dropping out of that race," says McDonnell. "They were trying to run 7:33 on the night, and when the Kenyan passed him something just went wrong. It was one of those wild decisions. He quit, and a minute later is wondering why the hell he stopped. But he's ready to go and race now. Alistair has always been at his best in a racing situation. The trouble with some of those time trials is that you can start about the guys behind, and maybe he had too many good guys coming behind him.

"We've talked over it quite a bit, and I mean he really regretted it. He wasn't feeling that bad, but once the Kenyan passed him he suddenly stopped. He was only two steps behind the leader at that stage, but I know that's very unlike Alistair, so we can't quite explain it."

Cragg has had a month now to get his head right again. He travelled to London last weekend and kept to himself to make sure he lost none of his focus. And physically McDonnell believes there are no scars.

"I do think he's in good shape. I know there is nothing wrong with his conditioning, because he's done some great workouts and he'll be ready. I'd say physically he's in just about the same shape as he was going to Madrid. We just don't know how dropping out of that race has affected him mentally, but it shouldn't. We know the field is stacked, but I know he's thinking about a medal. That's definitely what he's aiming for."

Eight of the nine Irish athletes competing in Moscow are in action on day one. James Nolan has made three World Indoor finals already and having run his fastest indoor 1,500 metres in three years he's capable of reaching another. Maria McCambridge made the 3,000 metres final in Budapest and also has the form to repeat that feat, although both Emily Maher and Ailis McSweeney will probably need to run lifetime bests in the 60 metres to make the semi-finals.