ATHLETICS: For all the talk of improved facilities and coaching structures, the enduring gaps in the Irish athletics system have been once again highlighted by David Gillick's decision to move to England.
The reigning European Indoor 400 metres champion left for Loughborough University yesterday, packing his possessions into his car and travelling by ferry to what will be his new training base and home for at least the year ahead. Sorry to go, he says, but no choice, really.
Loughborough has long been regarded as one of the breeding grounds for leading British athletes, going back to the days of Sebastian Coe, and more recently, Paula Radcliffe. Gillick will link up with Nick Dakin, Loughborough's director of coaching and a specialist in the 400 and 400 metre hurdles.
It will mean parting with his Dublin coach, Jim Kidd, who guided Gillick from promising club athlete with Dundrum South-Dublin to European Indoor success in Madrid in early 2005.
Progress has been slow yet steady since, and while he lowered his outdoor best to a very exciting 45.67 seconds to win the national title in July, the European Championships in Gothenburg a few weeks later proved a real setback to his ambitions, with Gillick fading badly in his semi-final.
"I do feel I made some good improvement this summer," said Gillick before he departed yesterday, "even if Gothenburg was personally a great disappointment. I suppose I've come to a crossroads now, in that I've finished five years in college, still living at home, and realising I have to make some changes if I want to take it to the next level.
"I've always said I don't want to look back when I'm 31 or 32 and think I didn't give athletics my best shot. And I feel to do that now I have to go away. I suppose I have to get out of the comfort zone a little. I've enjoyed training at home and I think I've done as well as I could have hoped so far, but I don't want to be the big fish in a small pond. That's not being big-headed in any way but I just feel I need to put myself in a more competitive environment to make the sort of progress that I want to."
Only 23, his decision to move to England has been fully supported by Kidd, who agrees that a change of training environment is crucial to the next stage of Gillick's development as a world-class 400 metres runner. Gillick looked at a few options, but after two visits to Loughborough was convinced it was offering exactly what he desired.
Dakin is one of the emerging names in British coaching, and works with a squad of one-lap specialists including Martyn Rooney, Britain's most exciting prospect in years with his junior record of 45.35 run this year, and also 400-metre hurdlers Chris Rawlinson and Rhys Williams.
"In a way it's all happened so fast," added Gillick, "but I'm very confident that Loughborough is the place for me. The other option was to go to America but I feel that would have taken a lot longer to organise, and there was a little more risk involved there as well.
"Jim is fully behind me on this, and wants me to give it a go. That's nice as well in that if it doesn't work out for whatever reason he's still there to fall back on. The bottom line is I need to train full-time, in a full-time environment, and I just couldn't see myself getting that here.
"Loughborough has exceptional facilities, indoors and outdoors, which obviously makes it that bit easier. And they've a massive sports science back-up. The most important thing, though, is the competitive environment, being surrounded by athletes who want to compete at the highest level."
While Gillick obviously feels that Loughborough University can offer something that no similar facility at home can, he was, however, cautious about criticising the Irish athletics system, which continues to be revamped for the better. Several new coaching positions have been established, and money is coming in from all angles, yet some of the age-old problems (no proper indoor training track, limited sports science back-up) still exist.
"I know there are a lot of plans out there at the moment, such as the Institute for Sport. And I'm not saying that you can't make it from home. Obviously Derval O'Rourke is proof that you can. But I think for my event you do need to surround yourself with athletes of the same ability and level. The other thing is Beijing is coming on fast. Next year is crucial, in that I want to run the A-standard. I can't afford to wait around any longer. I need to go full-time now."
