Athletics:David Gillick's preparations for next month's World Championships in Berlin are right on track after the Irish runner finished fifth in a world class men's 400 metres line-up at tonight's IAAF Herculis meeting in Monaco.
Gillick ran in a time of 45.34 seconds to be a few strides off American Olympic Champion LaShawn Merrit’s winning time of 44.73.
Merritt is also the fastest in the world this year and took the win ahead of fellow American David Neville, who ran 45.26 in second.
As for Gillick his third place meant he took the scalp of several big names, including Leslie Djhone of France (45.57), Jamaal Torrance also of America (45.97) and Britain’s Martyn Rooney, who was a long way back in 46.22.
With two sub-45 second runs already this summer, Gillick remains on course to strongly challenge for a place in the final in Berlin. He will have one more race over 200 metres at this weekend’s National Championships in Santry.
Thomas Chamney finished seventh in the 800 metres (1:45.50). That still left him just short of the A-standard for Berlin, 1:45.40, although having run 1:45.41 already this summer, Chamney looks set to go on the B-Standard, provided he wins the national title this weekend.
Victory there went to Abubaker Kaki of Sudan in 1:43.50, who just held off the former Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, who ran 1:43.58