Athletics:He was bumped, he barged, and David Gillick was eventually disqualified after ending up a disappointing fifth at the World Indoor Athletics Championships 400-metres final in Doha, Qatar.
The 26 year-old Dubliner adopted some questionable tactics, and really only had himself to blame when he fell foul of an appeal by American Bershawn Jackson, who was awarded his fifth-place finish and the €10,000 on offer for it.
Out in front, and leading every step of the way, was Chris Brown of the Bahamas, who took the gold medal in 45.96 seconds. But Gillick, who had started in the difficult lane three, briefly ran through into the silver medal position approaching the last bend, at which point he ran into trouble with Jackson.
Sensing a gap on the inside, Gillick moved – but just like in his semi-final got badly chopped, had to completely readjust his stride, and with that faded to fifth. William Collazo of Cuba came through for silver in 46.31, with the other American Jamaal Torrance third in 46.34 – but the disappointment was clear to see on the face of Gillick when he crossed the line in 46.62.
There was a clearly a medal there for the taking, possibly not gold, but if Gillick had been a little more patient coming around the final bend he would have surely got silver or bronze, at worst.
Jackson faded completely to finish last in 46.84 seconds, which also proved that tactics are everything in indoor 400 metre running - though his successful appeal against Gillick's behaviour exonerates him somewhat.
Gillick fell to his knees in disgust after the finish, clearly aware that he had brought all sorts of trouble onto himself by trying to cut through in the inside. Up to that point he had run quite smartly, fourth at the bell lap, which was passed by Brown in 21.28.
He made a big move down the back straight to be in contention for silver, but there was no way he was going to recover from the barging incident with Jackson, and with that went Ireland’s hopes of adding another World Indoor gold medal to the six won already since the inaugural year in 1987 – the gold medals won by Marcus O’Sullivan, Frank O’Mara and Derval O’Rourke.
