Gillick pays for 'aggressive' tactics

ATHLETICS INDOOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:OBSTRUCTION. IT'S ONE of the cardinal sins of indoor running. Commit it not once but twice in the same race and there's no room for forgiveness, which explains why David Gillick has left Doha empty-handed after his stormy World Indoor 400 metres final.

As if his tactics in Saturday’s final weren’t maddening enough, it emerged yesterday that even if Gillick had got himself into a medal position inside the last 100 metres, he would have been disqualified for a previous incident. The US team submitted an objection to Gillick’s tactics based on interference with two of their runners – Jamaal Torrance and Bershawn Jackson.

The IAAF jury of appeal upheld the objection on both counts, which resulted in Gillick’s disqualification, and Jackson rewarded with fifth place instead.

Gillick also surrendered his €4,354 prize money to Jackson.

When Irish team manager Patsy McGonagle submitted a counter-appeal to this decision, he was told Gillick had been cited by two track judges for breach of rule 163.2 (obstruction), and informed McGonagle they’d noted, in previous races, the “physically aggressive” tactics of Gillick.

It was a bitter end to Gillick’s championships, and left the 26-year-old Dubliner with plenty of hard questions as to why his final went so badly wrong. Chris Brown of the Bahamas took gold in 45.96 seconds, well off the 45.52 Gillick ran last month. Cuba’s William Collazo got silver in 46.31, with Torrance taking bronze in 46.43. Gillick had finished in 46.62.

After the race Gillick made some strong accusations against Jackson: “I went for it, and he (Jackson) was the one that cut across me. He messed me up and messed himself up. I’m bitterly disappointed . . . another athletes’ stupidity cost me my medal.”

Unfortunately it wasn’t quite as straightforward as that, and as the US objection proved, Gillick’s physical tactics weren’t on. It also emerged yesterday that Gillick was somewhat lucky not to be disqualified in last Friday’s semi-final, the reason being his similar bump into Jackson didn’t cost anyone a place in the final.

CLAIRE BRADYput in another solid performance in the semi-final of the 60 metres yesterday, finishing sixth in 7.40 seconds. Though this was not good enough to see her progress to the final, she came within five-hundredths of a second of her personal best and Irish record at her first major senior championships.