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:
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…)