Michael McKillop: ‘I’m going to go out all guns blazing’
Though he hasn’t officially announced his intentions, middle-distance runner Michael McKillop has hinted the coming week could prove to be the closing chapter in his extraordinary Paralympics career.
A four-time gold medallist (spread across the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Games), the Antrim man kick-starts his latest – and perhaps final – bid for a podium place in the 1500m T38 heats at the Tokyo National Stadium on Friday. All of McKillop’s previous Paralympic triumphs were in the T37 classification, but the subsequent decision to move all the middle-distance events to T38 has presented the 31-year-old with quite the challenge in recent years.
At the 2019 World Championships, he failed to secure a medal at a major event for the first time in his athletics career and had to settle for silver at the recent Para-Athletics European Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. However, McKillop has been using this as a positive ahead of his potential Paralympics swansong.
“It’s very unfortunate that every Paralympic Games I’ve gone to, I’ve been expected to win gold. I’m in a slightly different situation this year. I’ve got nothing to lose and a lot to gain. My main ambition in these games is to get back on the podium. Where I believe I belong,” McKillop said.
“It’s an expectation that I’m not willing to shy away from because potentially it’s my last Paralympic Games. I’m going to go out all guns blazing, put it all on the line. If I put in a performance in the way I should and I believe I can, then I should get a medal.”
Despite being a year older, McKillop feels in much better shape than he was when the Paralympics were originally due to be held last summer. He initially struggled to rediscover his best running form following surgery to correct a crippling groin issue, but the extended lead-in to the Tokyo Games has afforded him the time he required to put things right.
“Obviously the pandemic is horrific and I would never have wanted it to happen, but at the same time it gave me that extra year that I needed. To work on my endurance, to work on my fitness. To work on the key elements that I was missing after having surgery. Being selfish, I am glad that I had the extra year and it has put me in a better position to fight for medals again.
“I feel like I’m in good shape. I’ve only raced five, six times this season, but we’ve got to deal with it. There’s athletes that have only raced once or twice. I’m in a lucky position to say that I have had some races. Which I needed, 100%.”