ATHLETICS:It must be another sign of the rising standards among Irish athletes that even when making finals, and running well, they're still coming down hard on themselves. Paul Hession made history in Birmingham this weekend as the first Irish athlete to make a 60-metre final - lowering the national record to 6.61 seconds in the process - yet even when finishing seventh he saw much room for improvement.
"Well 6.60 got the bronze medal, and I felt maybe I was capable of that," he said, having run 6.68 behind Britain's now four-time champion, Jason Gardener, who won in 6.51. "I think I missed something on my pick-up, but then that's why I'm here, to learn more for outdoors, because it's over 200 metres where I can really do some damage."
Mary Cullen was in similar mood after taking seventh over 3,000 metres, her 9:00.42 a little outside her best of 8:53.81. Poland's Lidia Chojecka took the win in 8:43.25:
"Well, that's the thing about championship athletics. You have to go out a little more aggressive, and not think about times," she said.
There was plenty of aggression from James Nolan in the 1,500 metres, which saw him finishing seventh in 3:46.34 and then disqualified for barging. He was reinstated on appeal, rightly so, having run bravely rather than illegally to make an impact on the leaders, although that still didn't leave him smiling.
"I was flat out on that last lap, and of course I'm pissed off at where I finished," he said, having seen Spain take all three medals, starting with Juan Higuero's gold in 3:44.41. "I'm still going to press on and try the steeplechase outdoors this summer, but I'm only looking at two more years in the sport. That's it. And that's why it would be nice if the Sports Council came out and gave me a little bit of help at this stage."
But no prizes for guessing the most disappointed Irish athlete in Birmingham: Alistair Cragg may have taken sixth over 3,000 metres - his 8:03.70 just over a second behind the surprise winner, Cosimo Caliandro of Italy, who ran 8:02.44 - but it may as well have been half a lap. The defending champion never looked a medal contender, but more fatally, he never once put himself in a position to be - and that represented abject failure.
"Obviously I got it wrong," he said. "I was waiting for something to happen, and it didn't happen, and just created a big monster out of nothing. Looking back I've realised that me not giving the race a chance meant no one else wanted to win it. They all sat there worrying about me, and I think everyone was disappointed in the end except the Italian.
"My plan was to go at 500 metres, to put my head down and string it out. When I saw 10 people still in front of me, my heart just sank. I just couldn't see how I could get around them. I was scared I'd need an effort to get to the front, that the guys would just take off, and I didn't know if I could respond again."
Holding back the tears, Cragg admitted how the nightmare of Gothenburg last summer - when he dropped out of the 5,000 metres with an Achilles injury - still haunts him: "Mentally if I was right last summer I think if I'd torn my Achilles in half I would have got around that track. I don't want to admit I gave up. But when I look back, well it does eat at me. The year was dedicated to that race, and I wasted that year. That makes me sick.
"I'm 26 now and don't need to be drifting along, trying to figure out what I'm doing. I thought these championships would snap me out of it. I know it's not physical.
"But I know you still have to go out there and produce. I just haven't shown the performance I should . . . I don't know what the answer is but I know what's in me, and what I can do. These are the years I've got to take it."
SATURDAY: Men's 60 metres, heat 1: 2 P Hession, 6.61 (national record). Semi-final: 4 P Hession 6.64, qualified for final.
Men's 400 metres final: 1 D Gillick 45.52 seconds (national record, European leader). Men's 800 metres semi-final 1: 4 D McCarthy 1:49.37 (personal best); Semi-final 2: 5 T Chamney 1:50.48.
Men's 1,500 metres: Heat 1: 10 G Turnbull 3:52.20; Heat 2: 4 J Nolan 3:43.24 (qualified for final); 9 L Reale 3:47.94.
Men's 3,000 metres final: 6 A Cragg 8:03.70.
SUNDAY: Men's 60 metres final: 7 P Hession 6.68. Men's 1,500 metres final: 7 J Nolan 3:46.34. Women's 3,000 metres final: 7 M Cullen 9:00.42.
