Gillick gets on his bike

ATHLETICS/World Indoor Championships: In many ways, 400-metre running is like riding a bike: once you learn you should never forget. In this case, it's getting the balance between pace and pain, and when it comes to indoors, also the challenge of running four tight bends while holding off your opponents.

So the fact David Gillick hasn't raced a 400-metre race this season shouldn't be a problem. That's the theory anyway. Having landed in Moscow with the Irish team yesterday, Gillick finally gets to test himself over the distance tomorrow - in the heats of the World Indoor championships.

It's just over a year since Gillick announced his arrival in the event by winning the European Indoor title in Madrid, at the age of 21. His build-up to Moscow, however, has been based almost entirely on training, including two weeks in sunny Florida, and a few test races over 200 metres.

"I know it's strange going into a major championships without having raced the distance," he says, "but sometimes it's nice to do it that way. I'm actually looking forward to getting on the start line and seeing how it goes. And I know how well the training is going, in that we have done some long stuff on the track.

"The 200-metre races have actually sharpened me up a lot, and I've been feeling very strong. I haven't tapered down at all either. So I am going in there coming off some hard training, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's more of a good thing, because I'm feeling very strong, which is what you need for the indoors."

What is most surprising about Gillick running in Moscow is that he's there at all. When he started back training in October he purposely put the indoor season to the back of his mind, gearing all his winter training towards the European Championships in Gothenburg in August.

Originally the plan was to run a few indoor races just to break the monotony of training. So he ran the 200 metres at the British championships and clocked a personal best of 21.36 seconds, and followed that by winning the Irish title in Belfast in 21.45.

"Gothenburg is still the main focus for 2006," he explains, "so I certainly don't feel any great pressure to perform in Moscow. But I think it was always a case of wait and see about the World Indoors, and while I wouldn't aim for it, I wouldn't totally rule it out either.

"After those 200-metre races I just felt that Jim Kidd (his coach) had an inkling that maybe I should go. I thought a lot about it, and with the Commonwealth Games on at the same time, and also the NCAAs in America, it's not going to be as competitive as maybe other years. A lot of lads running here are between 46 and 46.5. I just felt I was right to take my chance."

Defending champion Alleyne Francique of Grenada is the athlete to beat, having run 45.80 last weekend. The Americans Milton Campbell and LaShawn Merritt have run sub-46 as well, while Gillick's indoor best of 46.17 goes back to Madrid.

But if everything goes to plan, the heats and Saturday's semi-final would give Gillick plenty of practice for Sunday's final. He'll need to run 46.17 or quicker for a medal, and that's something he can't quite predict.

"It's hard to say. Obviously I was possibly more race-fit last year, but training-wise the times I've been running now are a lot quicker. So that gives me good confidence. And look, to me the worst thing that could happen was that I was sitting at home and 46.5 made the final. That would kill me."