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Gillick Finishes Outside Medals in Final

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from A.A.I Irish hopes of a medal were dashed when David Gillick (DSD AC) finished fifth in the Men’s 400m final in 46.62 seconds at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Doha.

 Gillick had a solid start from the unfavourable lane three and was in fourth place going into the second lap. With Chris Brown of Bahamas leading down the back straight, Gillick made a move to take third position behind Bershawn Jackson (USA). On the final bend he moved into a small gap that had opened inside Jackson, this resulted in jostling between both athletes with Gillick coming to a near standstill. He regained his stride but with only 40 metres left in the race it was too late and the athletes behind him, who had momentum, passed him.

On crossing the line the Dublin man dropped to the track in frustration. The race was won by Brown in 45.96, with Willian Collazo of Cuba second in 46.31 and America’s Jamaal Torrance placed third in 46.63. The other pre-race favourite Jackson finished sixth. Speaking after the race Gillick said “I am bitterly, bitterly disappointed as I really wanted a medal”
 

In the morning session, Kelly Proper’s (Ferrybank AC) best jump of 6.29m, in the qualification rounds of the long jump was not enough to see her secure a place in the final. Proper’s best jump came in her final leap having failed her first jump and having recorded 6.13m in her second jump. The Irish long jump record holder finished sixteen overall. Proper expressed her disappointment after qualification “I came out here trying to get to the final and seeing what I could do there. I know it was well within my capabilities to make it to the final but it just wasn’t my day.”
 

While Proper’s jumping was well off her best of 6.62m, all of the jumpers appeared to struggle with none of the athletes achieving the automatic qualification standard for the final. Qualification standard then reverted to the top eight qualifying jumps with Naide Gomes of Portugal recording the longest jump of 6.61m. The experience of competing on the World stage will no doubt stand to the multi-talented athlete when she competes in the European Championships Barcelona this Summer with Proper commenting: “Everything felt good, I was just unlucky and I will definitely benefit from this experience."

The Irish Men’s 4x400m relay team of Nick Hogan, Brian Gregan, Brian Murphy and Billy Ryan were also in action. The Irish team were in a stacked heat with USA, Jamaica, Domincia Republic and Great Britain. The quartet was never in contention and placed sixth in 3:13:00 minutes. Brian Murphy commented that it was " Very hard out there but there will be something to take from it in the summer with a little more experience under our belt. The competition here was very hot (USA and Jamaica were 1-2 in Ireland’s heat – Britain were only 4th).”