Here we are at the start of another season . Another winter has come and gone and yes we’ve all aged another year but we’re at the begining of another fantastic season. Another day has dawned on Irish 400m running. Last year we had the privillage of seeing Brian Gregan make the Final of the World juniors and also a promising junior 4*400m relay team . The Leaps and bounds have being massive in 12 months.

This weekend coming is the Schools All Ireland which will see a fantastic senior boys 400m packed full of young talented juniors, looking for there own qualifiers and also breaking down the door of 48 seconds. Billy Ryan had a fantastic indoors recording 48.17sec and will definitely be one to watch.

David Gillick has being out in flying form recording 45.80 so far this season. As has, Antoine Burke in Australia running 47.92. Myself, Brian Murphy and Brian Gregan will be out over the next 10 days proving fitness for the upcoming Europa Cup. As the hunt begins for all important European cup selection getting the times will be of the upmost importance for selection.

Racing Dates:

Gordon Kennedy Races in:

• Ljubljana 1st June
• Helsinki 5th June
• Tullamore 7th June
• Gothenberg 9th June

Brian Murphy races in:

• Helsinki 5th June

By Gordon Kennedy

It has been a while since any of us posted anything on the site. With the European Indoors next weekend and our double European champion, David Gillick, taking to the boards it seems like the perfect time to kick things off again.

Last year was a tough pill for us to swallow and it took a lot of time to sink in that we were not going to be competing in the Olympics, for some of us it was our last shot and for others only the beginning.

All is not lost however, in fact there is a lot to be hopeful about. Last year saw a new National Senior Record by David Gillick while Brian Greagan equalled the 8 year old National Junior Record. We also saw a new Schools record by Curtis Woods the newest member and sensation on the Irish circuit. This good form has continued into 2009 as we saw Billy Ryan win the AAA Championships in a time of 48.13, although he was unfortunately disqualified a little later, but will definitely be someone to watch this summer.

For the year ahead everyone will be doing there own preparations for various championships be it Junior, U23 or the World Championshps in Berlin. The target for the 4*4 in Berlin is tough but with the list of athletes under the 48 seconds mark growing all the time we have high hopes of translating this into more athletes under the crucial 47 seconds mark. One thing is for sure, there will be a relay team at the Europa cup come the 22 of june. Who will form the team will be decided over the coming months and I personally hope to challenge once again for my place and give it everything on the day.

For now best of luck to David. I wish him look in the next few days.

Gordon Kennedy
Project 400

Project 400 might have narrowly failed to qualify a 4*400m team for the Olympics but they will be abled represented by David Gillick in the individual 400m race.

David enters the race as the 3rd fastest European this season and Project 400 would like to wish him and all the Irish team the best of luck.

Dave starts his campaign at 9.00am on Monday morning (Beijing time).

The IAAF have rejected the Irish team’s request to sanction a last-minute 4×400m relay at the Lucerne Grand Prix in Switzerland this coming Wednesday. Following the cancellation of the last sanctioned race, this was the last and only possibility of the team meeting the required standard to qualify for the Olympics in the team event.

With the hopes of the team competition now faded, the project400 members concentration will return to their individual efforts. David Gillick has already achieved the A qualification standard for Beijing and continued his good form with a 45.52 second run at the Golden League meet in Rome last Friday.

Paul McKee is currently one second off the A qualification standard and has lined up several races over the coming week in the hopes of achieving the time before the deadline expires. For further details on his competitions please visit the BBC Sports page to read more.

Elsewhere, Brian Doyle ran an excellent 47.14 at the Cork city sports on Saturday. Brian Murphy and Gordon Kennedy were competing in Uden, Netherland and Ghent, Belgium over the weekend and a report on their results will be up in the next few days.

The AAI National Senior Track and Field Championships will be held next weekend at Santry in Dublin and project400 members will be out in force over the two days. There will also be live coverage on the Sunday by RTE, more details to follow during the week.

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!

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.

Both David Gillick and Paul McKee were in action in the Golden Spike tour in Ostrava tonight.

Running from the unfavourable lane 8, David produced a fantastic last 100 to get up for a clear 2nd place in a season’s best equalling 45.65.

Paul lined up in the seldom run 300m alongside training partner and Irish 200m record holder Paul Hession and World 400m Champion Jeremy Wariner. Paul finished in 4th place in a personal best 33.33 while Hession claimed a fantastic new Irish record of 32.47.

The boys will travel on to Namur to meet up with the rest of the team to make their first qualification attempt at the 4*400m.

On Monday Brian Murphy will return to Montegordo for another warm weather training stay, after a full week back in Ireland. This time however, Brian will be joined by his fellow project400 members, Paul McKee and Brian Doyle.

At Montegordo, they will rejoin Gordon Kennedy, who had stayed on while Brian flew home last week. However, they will not be the only Irish athletes this time at the renowned training facility, as the AAI have organized a special training camp and there will be many other athletes in attendance for the 2 week stay.

Among those expected to attend will be fellow project400 member David Gillick who will fly out later in the week as well as Paul Hession and many other stars of the Irish athletics team.

Stay tuned for even more reports, photos and stories from the training camp.

David Gillick got his competition season underway on Sunday at the prestigious Mt Sac Relays held annually in California. With his time of 46.39 Gillick placed fourth overall with his Loughborough training partner, Martyn Rooney taking the win in 45.88

For full results please visit the Mt Sac Results Page

David Gillick appeared on the Tubridy Tonight show just over a week ago. He featured alongside World Indoor Champion (and first person to comment on this website) Derval O’ Rourke, and Cork Hurler Sean Óg o Hailpín. (more…)