ATHLETICS/World Indoor Championships: Actually winning your way into the final of the World Indoor 1,500 metres must rank as something of a renaissance for an athlete considered by some as well past it. That's the way it seems with James Nolan. And at 29 he's not just coming back to his best, he's possibly getting better.

With these championships condensed into three days the qualification process is so perilous nothing can be left to chance - exactly how Nolan approached the third of three 1,500-metre heats. While two fastest finishers would also progress, only first and second past the line were sure of making the final later today. So Nolan just went for it.

"I wasn't even looking at the clock," he said. "I just raced it to win. I'd looked at the heat yesterday and knew I could make the top two. Still, it's nice to win it. I mean I wanted to get on the TV, keep the profile up and that. But seriously, at this level you can just as easily go out as stay in. Today was my day.

"And I'm delighted to have bounced back like this. A lot of people were saying things about me, like we have to get rid of these older people. But I'm out there doing my own thing. I still find it funny they don't want to support us, but I was never going to just disappear they way they thought I would."

It wasn't that Nolan just won his heat, it was the way he won it. Sitting back early on, he was then jostled back and forth through the field trying to find his attacking position. He got in front at the bell, blasting past the Spaniard Arturo Casado and holding that position right though to the line. His time of 3:44.67 just held off Yassine Bensghir of Morocco, but it was a superbly brave and determined effort.

Kenya's Daniel Komen took the first heat in 3:39.64, and Ivan Heshko of the Ukraine the second heat in 3:41.49, but indoor 1,500-metre finals are notoriously tactical and Nolan can't be ruled out of the mix. "Well I'm going to go for it again, definitely. Unlike the past I won't be thinking about where I should be finishing. I've nothing to lose. So I'll get out and try to win, and if I do that or come ninth I'll have got to the final the way I wanted."

Nolan's exciting win rounded off a roller-coaster day for the Irish. David Gillick had gone into the heats of the 400 metres without having run the distance this season, and the European Indoor champion knew it would be a case of reacquainting himself with the business of running four tight bends. But he didn't expect to run this poorly. He wasn't helped by the fact California Molefe of Botswana cracked the race open and ran 45.74 for the win, the fastest in the world this year, but Gillick was disturbingly slow out of his blocks, and only fifth as they broke at the bell lap, with his 47.61 clocking well short of his best of 46.13.

"I didn't get out fast enough," he admitted. "I was definitely a little rusty, but that's no reflection of the way things are going. So it's bitterly disappointing . . . I don't want to start spitting out excuses. That just wasn't the real David Gillick out there. I never even gave myself a chance."

There was still some consolation when David McCarthy qualified out of the final heat, running a season's best 46.68 for second place after the American LaShawn Merritt was disqualified. He goes into this afternoon's semi-final hoping to repeat his feat in Birmingham three years ago when he made the final.

Earlier, sprint specialists Emily Maher and Ailis McSweeney went to the line for the heats of the women's 60 metres and deservedly progressed to the semi-finals. Maher took fourth in her heat in 7.38 and qualified automatically, with McSweeney claiming fifth in her heat in 7.44 to qualify as the fastest loser.

Four hours later the three semi-finals proved far more competitive, with Maher taking fifth (7.36) and McSweeney seventh (7.42) - well off qualification. Yet Maher was still positively upbeat about her performance, partly because Moscow revived memories of the sprint double she won here at the World Youth Olympics back in 1998. "It felt great running out here again," she said, "and I was relieved I got through the heats. It's all about building for outdoors now and the European championships, and I think if we all keep going the way we are we'll have a relay team that can win a medal."

Maria McCambridge and Roisin McGettigan went straight into today's 3,000 metres final after their heats were cancelled yesterday, although they probably won't match the ambitions of Derval O'Rourke, who is ranked fifth fastest of the starters in the 60-metre hurdles.

For Alistair Cragg, the prospect of trying to mix it with the best Africa has to offer is exciting: "Yeah it's a stacked field. To get a medal here I'll have to run the race of my life, and hopefully they'll have the worst race of their lives. But this is the kind of opportunity runners live for. Growing up I always wanted to be in a big race like this. Top five I'd be happy with, but a medal is what I came here to get.