One Irish athlete who has been very unlucky with injuries in recent times is 400m star, David Gillick. The 2005 and 2007 European Athletics Indoor Champion at 400m suffered a calf injury which prematurely brought an end to his 2011 season. He has been training hard of late at his Loughborough base and has his sights well and truly set on a medal at the 2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, 27 June – 1 July. And of course to a qualifying time for the London Olympics. But first the Europeans. Read more

Anyone caught up in the Olympic countdown can only take it one day at a time, and not even the more commercial reminders – only 150 days to go! – can make London seem any greater a priority than it already is. That’s not saying there wasn’t some fresh anticipation when three Irish hopefuls described their final movements towards Friday, July 27th, a timely reminder, perhaps, that D-Day itself is fast approaching.

A reminder, too, that for David Gillick, qualifying is the first priority; for fellow athlete Fionnuala Britton, the qualifying priorities have changed; and for boxer Michael Conlan, the first priority is already out of the way. Read more

David Gillick, Ireland's two-time European indoor 400m champion, insists that his failure to make the Olympic qualifying standard last year will not put additional pressure on him to step up to the mark this season.

Today marks the 150-day countdown to the start of London 2012 and, unlike most of Ireland's top track hopefuls, the big Dundrum South Dublin star, who was sixth at the 2009 World Championships, still hasn't run the qualification standard of 45.30 seconds, having suffered an injury-disrupted 2011. Read more

Gillick skipping 'indoors' to focus on Olympic bid

DAVID Gillick is skipping indoor racing this season, despite previously using it as a launch pad for some of his best summer performances.

The Dundrum South Dublin star, a two-time European indoor 400m champion who was sixth at the 2009 World Championships outdoors, has returned to his old coach and training base in Loughborough and still has to qualify for London 2012. Read more

A small number of Irish athletes will feel their prospects of qualifying for the London Olympics next year have been improved after the IAAF yesterday announced amended standards for some events.

The amendments are small but they could make the difference between making the Irish team and not making the Games at all.

For example in the men's 400 metres, which is a strong Irish event, the A standard has been eased from 45.25 to 45.30 seconds while the B mark has been eased from 45.70 to 45.90 seconds. Read more

Athlete David Gillick chats to Ryan Tubridy

Back in the nest at Loughborough, with a familiar training regime, girlfriend Charlotte an hour away in London by rail and Dublin no less accessible by air, David Gillick is a happy man again.

He sounds a far cry from the melancholic, anxious figure who found the solitude of a new life in Florida just too hard to bear, and came back to coach Nick Dakin with his ‘tail between his legs’.

He is so happy, in fact, that the looming imperative of qualifying for the London Olympics doesn’t raise his blood pressure at all. It’s not that Gillick doesn’t care about getting the time; he knows that if he trains well and runs well, it will come.‘People keep going on about the time and it’s very important to get it, of course, but the important thing is that whether I had an A standard from last year or this year, you still have to perform,’ says the 400- metres man.

‘If I was running like a donkey I wouldn’t want to go to the Olympics even if I had qualified.

‘I am in an environment where since 2006 I have run the A standard every year. If I can do the work on the programme, I know it will come.’

Gillick is training with essentially the same band of British Olympic aspirants as when he left Loughborough, but says: ‘It already strikes me how much they have moved on in the space of a year.’

The group gives him what he lacked in the US, training with the likes of mega-star Tyson Gay — camaraderie.

‘That is something I kind of missed a bit in America, where it was just me and one other guy and I know going down to the track now that there will be a lot of craic,’ says Gillick.

‘We are there to push each other on, but the social side of things is really important and it makes it a little bit easier.’

If he can claw his way back to his best by next summer - Gillick’ s 44.77secs in 2009 made him equal sixth-fastest in the world that year, and he was sixth at the World Championships in Berlin - the Dubliner will be one of Ireland’s top track-and-field contenders.

For now, it is just fun to be having fun again.

‘When I went back out for the first track session I realised I had really missed it,’ he says. ‘I didn’t do a lot of track stuff out in the States, so I am back enjoying the sport.’

OCI announce ESB Electric Ireland as a sponsor of Team Ireland for London 2012

Dublin, 21st September 2011: The Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) today revealed ESB Electric Ireland as an official sponsor of Team Ireland for the London 2012 Olympics. The announcement was made by President of the OCI, Pat Hickey at the ESB Sportsco sports facility in Dublin 4 in the company of four of Team Ireland's Olympic hopefuls Deirdre Ryan, Katie Taylor, Derval O'Rourke and David Gillick.

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