ATHLETICS/World Championships:Ireland's best one-lappers are about to tackle the loftiest of peaks, writes Ian O'Riordan.
In 400-metre running, the difference between conquering Europe and conquering the world is difficult to comprehend - a bit like scaling Everest only to discover another mountain of similar height at its summit. In other words, being among the best in Europe is only one step to being among the best in the world.
No one realises this better than David Gillick and Joanne Cuddihy. As Ireland's two 400-metre representatives at the World Championships, which begin in Osaka on Saturday, they are about to find out where they stand on a global scale, or more specifically, how they rank against the all-conquering Americans.
For Gillick, being the two-time European Indoor champion at the distance will count for little in Osaka, when qualifying from the heats of the 400 metres represents a quite monumental task. The only thing certain is that he'll have given himself every chance of doing so.
It's over five months now since Gillick produced that sensational gold-medal run at the European indoors in Birmingham, his time of 45.52 seconds seriously fast by any standards. What Gillick has made clear, however, is that Birmingham was just a stop-off on the way to Osaka, and the past year has been all about peaking for late August.
He started the summer with a month-long training stint in California, and for the past fortnight he's been fine-tuning his preparations at the Irish training camp in Matsue City, south of Osaka. His coach, Loughborough University's Nick Dakin, joined him this week, as did his training partner Martyn Rooney, who runs the event for Britain. Gillick is also bringing out his sports psychologist Enda McNulty, the Armagh footballer, and he's quite obviously eager for the challenge.
"Unless you're in the top five or six in the world, then these championships are all about getting through the rounds," he says. "I mean there's no way you can think about the final, or even the semi-final. I have to approach it to run at my best in the first round.
"It will be tough, very, very difficult. But why not look forward to it? It's my first World Championships, and since I moved to England nine months ago everything has been focused on this. I've put in a good year, posted a good personal best, but I have to get back down to those times here - simple as that."
Gillick's outdoor best, 45.23, run in Geneva at the start of June, ranks him 23rd in the world this summer, and he has struggled to match that time in recent weeks. But with 11 Americans ranked ahead of him, and only four of those running in Osaka, making the last 16, or even the last eight, is not outside the realm of possibility.
"As times go, I think 45.4 or 45.3 will be needed to get through the first round. I've been consistently running 45.7, sometimes coming home with too much left in the tank. In fact I feel like I could run that time backwards. When I ran the 45.23 in Geneva I was right in the mix, right in the race, but unfortunately in races since I've been a little isolated.
"I just have a feeling it will all come together in Osaka. I just know 12 months ago, going out to the Europeans, I just wasn't looking forward to it. I didn't feel I was in the best shape, wasn't hungry enough. This year, and after what happened in the indoors, I know why I'm doing the sport, and what I want to get from it."
Part of what Gillick wants is to test himself against the very best, which in 400-metre running comes in the person of Jeremy Wariner. At 23 he's a year younger than Gillick, but has already won the 2004 Olympic title, and in Osaka is out to defend the world title he won two years ago.
Wariner ran 43.50 recently in Stockholm, making him equal-third-fastest in history, and Michael Johnson's world record of 43.18 will live nervously next week.
Wariner's coach is 72-year-old Clyde Hart, who also coached Johnson. At Baylor University, Texas, Hart has developed his system around the theory that longer, slower runs at short intervals increase speed.
Hart is also coach to the world's best female 400-metre runner, Sanya Richards, who though Jamaican-born has been running for the US since 2002. Richards will miss her chosen event in Osaka after finishing fourth in the US trials, but she remains a live gold-medal threat at 200 metres.
For Cuddihy this makes the task of qualification marginally easier. A year ago she made the final of the European Championships in Gothenburg, running a best of 51.09, but her best this summer is 51.56, an unnerving 43rd on the world rankings.
Like Gillick, however, she has geared everything toward Osaka. She deferred her final two years of medical studies at UCD and spent time at the start of the summer with the US coach Dan Pfaff in San Diego. It's been a huge learning curve for the 23-year-old from Kilkenny, all part of the process in taking on the world.
"I did learn a lot from being in America and that training environment. I would just describe the American sprinters as . . . very relaxed and very confident. They don't get stressed out about the sport in any way - that's one definite difference.
"I've been working a lot on technique, or biomechanics, especially with the start, and the way you drive out of the blocks. I seemed to have been missing that gear. I have noticed a difference in the first 30 metres. It's about conserving energy as well.
"It just hasn't really come right for me yet. I just haven't let it get to my confidence. I'm a stronger athlete this year, and more consistent. It just hasn't been a dream season to date."
Gillick and Cuddihy have been dreaming about Osaka all year. Now comes the reality, and in 400-metre running there is no greater check on that than the World Championships.
