The British Perspective.
September 6th 2007 03:42
First, the facts.
Great Britain acquired 1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals putting them 10th in the overall medal table, an improvement of 6 places on the performance in Helsinki 2 years ago.
This showing placed GB above usually more successful nations such as Sweden, France, Cuba and Belarus.
In addition to the medallists we also obtained 10 top 8 finishes along with 3 other athletes placing 9th.
We reach a lofty 6th position in the placings table where points are awarded for top 8 finishes – that’s above Ethiopia, Australia and China – all countries with much larger populations or perceived strength in the sport.
There was a national record set in the women’s 4x400m, the third fastest time ever in the men’s 4x100m as well as 18 personal best performances and 17 season’s best performances.
Of the 47 British athletes in Osaka (including relay teams) 17 reached finals and another 12 made the semi finals.
The average age of the finalists was 24, suggesting a bright future lies ahead.
And all this without other key athletes who were out of form here or missed the championships entirely.
Athletes such as Paula Radcliffe, an almost nailed on medal in the women’s marathon when fit or Nathan Douglas in the triple jump who could has a personal best of 17.64m which would have been enough to claim silver in Japan.
Add to those Tim Benjamin and Greg Rutherford – two men woefully unfit in Osaka due to injury and illness but both with enough talent to challenge the best in the world.
Goldie Sayers in the Javelin has risen to world level this year but could not deliver in the champs this time around; Martyn Rooney in the 400m will run faster in the future and Mark Lewis Francis missed out on a place in the 100m final by a solitary hundredth of a second – a marked improvement on what has gone before.
Special mention must go to Christine Ohuruogu for her gutsy and inspiring performance on her way to winning the 400m and my deepest sympathies to her for having to endure no end of pointless vitriol from moronic and misinformed sections of the media, tainting what should have been her proudest moment in the sport.
Nicola Sanders and Kelly Sotherton too deserve special praise as athletes going into the championships with question marks next to their names in terms of form.
Sanders took a full second off her outdoor pb in winning her silver medal whilst Sotherton showed that she is not quite ready to hand over the heptathlon mantle to young pretender Jessica Ennis quite yet.
The bronze won by the men in the sprint relay suggests that UKA have pulled off quite a coup in obtaining the services of Australian coach Michael Khemel to head their relay coaching team last summer.
So coupled with the resounding success of March’s European indoor championships Britain seems to be building up a lot of momentum going into Olympic year and beyond.
As Paul Revere once said in the midst of the American revolution,
“The British are coming.”
| 32 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
