David Gillick is a decent bloke. It needs to be said before we go on. He doesn’t want to moan, you can tell as soon as you meet him. He treks across Dublin city at 7am. For what? To run up hills in the biting winter cold — 300m, 200m, 300m, over and over. All the while asking his coach Mr Kidd, (never Jim) what to do next. He is not in athletics to moan. He’s in it to win.
March 5, 2005, was a special day for the DIT student. More importantly, his 400m win at the European Indoor Championship is important to the future of Irish athletics. Many view his victory as an anomaly but Gillick thinks it could be replicated with some altered thinking. While only 21, our first major sprint medallist since 1932 may know what he is talking about.
Irish athletics has always been a mystery. The Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) tries but has little impact. Instead power rests with the inefficient yet draconian Irish Sports Council (ISC). The recent controversy over the ISC carding scheme typifies how the organisation works.
Gillick can offer an insight into how many athletes lost their funding. “The carding scheme needs to be changed. I think it is not fair putting all the pressure on someone to go to a major championship and perform. I ran really well up to Madrid. My times were coming down, I was improving. Yet it all depended on my performance in Madrid whether I got funded or not. I could have got injured, I could have false started, I could have bombed, just raced crap and then I wouldn’t have got any money.”
Overnight, he has become a star. Along with 5,000m champion Alistair Craig, Gillick has given athletics a badly needed boost. While happy to help promote the sport he realises that Irish athletes deserve more in return. This year he will receive €19,100 from the ISC. The ISC terms this ‘World Class Grade Three’ funding. Why a European champion does not qualify for Grade One seems strange. Nevertheless Gillick acknowledges “€19,100 is a step in the right direction,” but admits “it is still not enough.” At least it is up from last year’s miserly €4,600.
Gillick is lucky he still lives at home. He does not have the worries of others. The generosity of his parents and coaches helped get him to Madrid. It was they who paid for an essential training weekend on a Glasgow track prior to the European Championship. Without them, he says, he would be nowhere. He won’t be living at home all his life however.
Some might think he is just an ingrate even though he is not complaining for himself but for others too. He has pleaded before the appeals committee on behalf of fellow sprinters Rob Daly and Gary Ryan with whom he won World Indoor 4x400m relay bronze back in 2003. They received no funding, which seems inconceivable.
Gillick believes Peter Coughlan’s forced retirement shows up the system’s shortcomings best. Despite being Ireland’s premier high-hurdler, his funding was unexpectedly cut. “He has got the B-Standard for Helsinki. The ISC come out with they are going to support more elite people, but sure if you have an A or B standard for the World Championships, you can’t get more elite in your sport.”
Many believe funding should be tied to athletes coaching within Irish schools. This way there would be long-term benefits with expertise being used instead of ignored. However that is only one problem, with many more persisting. Facilities are obviously a long-term issue. Most notable among the rest is the Olympic qualifying deadline imposed by the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI). Under their guidelines athletes are forced to qualify way in advance of the Olympics despite international guidelines allowing later qualification. Gillick does not understand their logic, which benefits no one.
“The international qualifying time was around early August,” he says. “The OCI brought it to June 10. June 10 is the very start of the season. You’re not going to be running as well as you can.”
Despite all the problems he still wants to stay here, albeit with training stints abroad. “I think it’s good for kids to be able to look up and say, you don’t have to go away, you can stay in Ireland, even if we are underfunded and have no facilities.”
He refuses to badmouth anyone. I try to prompt him about the large grants sailing and race walking get, but no joy. Decent is all you keep thinking. The flash obnoxious sprinters he hopes to take on at this summer’s World Championship seem far away. Maybe they will eat him alive, but maybe, just maybe, he’ll continue to improve despite the system and bite back like he did on that final bend in Madrid.