Brian Gregan is through to tonight’s World Junior Final in Bydgoszcz in the 400m. Last night’s second place in his semi final in 46.88 saw him progress through to the final as an automatic qualifier.

Brian will run from lane 8 tonight and will be looking for a new personal best in what looks to be a very competitive final. British Eurosport will be covering the evening session of the World Junior’s tonight so tune in and cheer on Brian.

All the lads in Project400 want to wish all our Juniors competing in Poland the very best of luck.

Flying high in Sweden

Gordon Kennedy and Brian Murphy were both in action today in the Folksham GP in Sollentuna, Sweden. Ranked fourth and sixth respectively on the Irish rankings this year, the boys battled well. Taking on a top class field, Gordon led most of the way to be just pipped on the line, coming second in a time of 47.04. Brian, running on the outside lane, ran a brave race and came back to grab third place in a time of 47.73 which was a little outside his SB (47.45) that he set in Wicklow last week.

Brian Gregan through to semi final

Running in the World Juniors Championships today, Brian excelled himself winning his heat in 47.32. This was a crucial move in terms of the lane draw as Brian will now have the enviable position of lane 3 when he takes to the line for his semi-final in the morning. The very best of luck to him in his semi-final.

Congratulations to David Gillick on his nomination for this month’s European Athletics’s Athlete of the Month. David was nominated on the back of his superb 45.12 performance in Lille last week.

You can vote for David on the EAA Athlete of the Month Page. If you are feeling generous you can also vote for Irish 200m speedster Paul Hession who is also up for nomination.

You can only vote once from the same computer, so borrow your friend’s computers as well!

Gordon Kennedy was racing in the Lugano GP in Switzerland on Friday evening. Running on the outside lane he got off to a sluggish start which cost him dearly in the home straight but still managed to finish strong, claiming fourth in a time of 46.91, his second fastest time this year.

This was the first of 4 races lined up over the next 8 days for Gordon.

Next race will be in Sollentuna Sweden on Tuesday night.

We got the bad news this morning that the 4*400m relay in the Salamanca Grand Prix on Wednesday night has been cancelled.

As things currently stand there are no additional qualification opportunities on the IAAF list. To say we are upset would be an understatement, but we will do what we can to see if another attempt can be made in another meet.

Paul McKee will be running in the individual 400m race at the Grand Prix.

David Gillick broke his own Irish Record tonight in Lille, France with a superb time of 45.12. This sees David take the number one spot on the European rankings for 400m this year, as well as being 16th fastest in the world. This is an amazing achievement and thoroughly deserved by such a hard working athlete, and I am sure all of the project400 readers will join in on our Congratulations to Dave!

The top 3 results from Lille were:
1 IRL 133 GILLICK DAVID (83) 45.12
2 BEL 134 VAN BRANTEGHEM CEDRIC (79) 45.24
3 FRA 142 VENEL TEDDY (83) 45.54

In other exciting developments today, the project400 team will be hoping third time is a charm as they confirm their participation on Wednesday night in Salamanca, Spain. This race will give the team one more opportunity to qualify for the Olympics. With just a few hundredths of seconds off of what is required, the team are just inches away from reaching their Olympic dreams.

The following teams have been confirmed:

Ireland
Italy
Nigeria
Spain

Further team details to follow soon.

“You control what you can control and don’t worry about things you can’t control”.

It might be the first rule of sports psychology but it was of little consolation for what happened last weekend.

Sunday’s 3:04.43 was a case of controlling all that could be controlled. It was a fantastic run which belies the time recorded. It was a focused, driven, team performance and despite our best efforts we were undone by what we couldn’t control - The Wind.

400m runners thrive on still days and favour a wind that blows down the back straight. What we got was a wind blowing down the home straight up 5.0 m/s. The 40m plus margin of victory was worthy of a top 16 team in the world. What it left us at the end of the day was an average of 18th position. 1/100th of second behind 17th place and less than 2/10ths of a second behind the crucial 16th spot. The day highlighted the inequity of the current relay qualification system where other teams improved their times in other races with superior competition and more favourable weather conditions.

We would like to thank everyone for their messages of support prior to the qualification attempts.

Brian Gregan equaled the Irish junior 400m record today when he finished third in the 400m in Mannheim, Germany in a time of 46:70.

The record was set back in 2000 by project400’s very own Gordon Kennedy. Gordon and the rest of the project400 team send their congratulations to Brian on his superb achievement. (more…)

This weekend, as part of the Irish teams participation in the European cup in Estonia, the project400 team members will attempt to gain qualification for the Beijing Olympic Games. In order to qualify, as it stands right now, the guys will need to run a time of 3:04.30 or better. This time combined with their 3:04.71 time from last week will be aggregated and will hopefully qualify the team for Beijing. (more…)

It’s all still to play for the Irish 4*400m team after a 3rd place 3:04.71 performance in Namur tonight. While the lads will have wanted a bit more from tonight, a time of 3:04.30 next weekend would see them inch into the top 16 list (as it currently stands).

Result
1) Belgium 3:02.16
2) South Africa 3:04.66
3) Ireland 3.04.71

Running Order:
1) Paul McKee
2) Gordon Kennedy
3) Brian Doyle
4) David Gillick

The lads would like to thank everyone for their kind messages of support and intend on making a big improvement in time next weekend in Estonia.