Gilchrist ready for trip to Europe

Press, 16 June 1983, Page 32

Gilchrist ready for trip to Europe

By ROD DEW A $2OOO grant from the New Zealand Sports Foundation has made it possible for the Commonwealth Games 150 m finalist, Michael Gilchrist, of Christchurch, to continue his quest for the elusive world championship qualifying time. He leaves from Auckland on Saturday with John Walker and New Zealand’s 90m javelin thrower, Mike O’Rourke, and will spend the next three months competing on the tough European track circuit. Gilchrist’s first race will be in London on June 26, probably over 2000 m or 3000 m. Then it will be down to the serious business of

attempting to crack the world championship qualifying time of 3min 38s for the 1500 m. He has until July 26 to achieve this, and is confident that he will succeed. His best time, set in a special trial at the beginning of winter, is just fourtenths of a second outside this time: “I have been training well,” he said yesterday. “I have been trying to sharpen up a little but it is very hard. It is so cold now.”

He is still running up to 130 km a week in training, although this will now be considerably reduced. “I feel in good shape.” Walker, who has already qualified for the world

championships in Helsinki in August, invited Gilchrist to travel with him on his trip and the 22-year-old Christchurch athelete is very grateful for this. Gilchrist will compete in many of the important, middle distance races Walker will run in and should have plenty of opportunity to produce fast times.

The New Zealand trio will be based in Norway. While in Europe, Gilchrist also hopes to achieve a 1500 m qualifying time for the Los Angeles Olympics. This is slightly easier than the world championships at 3min 395. The qualifying period is from July this year until July next year so

Gilchrist has a great chance to establish himself early as a strong candidate for the team.

The European tour represents a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel for Gilchrist. He suffered a stress fracture in a leg in the final of the Commonwealth Games 1500 m at Brisbane last year and spent much of last summer on the sidelines recovering from this and associated injuries. It was only as the season was drawing to a close that he started to show bis true capabilities. Unfortunately, winter came before he could produce the time required to join Walker in the Helsinki

team. In order to achieve his full potential on the track, Gilchrist has temporarily suspended his studies for a B.A. degree at the University of Canterbury. “My main object is to qualify for Helsinki, but I intended to go to Europe even if it had not been for this. I have never experienced this sort of thing before and I am really looking forward to this. You can bet on that,” Gilchrist said.

He leaves for Auckland today. While he is away he will still keep in close contact with the coach who has guided him throughout his career, Mr Valdemars

Briedis. “I am very pleased that Michael is having the chance to go to Europe and gain this experience. I hope he will do well, but even if he does not qualify for Helsinki the experience will be of enormous help to him,” Mr Briedis said. Mr Briedis, a former Olympic coach, is high in his praise of Walker for offering to take Gilchrist with him. “Not many people would do this. Having a young athlete with him will be a lot of worry and if he fails it will reflect on him.” Walker was big enough to take that chance, Mr Briedis said. “I am very thankful to him.”