So, England has had a miserable sporting summer so far, but recently, our athletes managed to lift the doom and gloom with their outstanding performance at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.
Team GB arrived back at Heathrow airport on Monday 2nd August with their best ever haul of medals at the Euros, 6 gold’s, 7 silver and 6 bronze. That is seven more than the previous overall best, set in Munich in 2002. With this success, hope will undoubtedly rise for the Olympics in London, now just two short years away.
The heroes of the championships from a British perspective with Mo Farah, who after years of suffering, clinched a spectacular double gold in the long-distance events (5,000m and 10,000m). The Kenyans may not be too frightened by Farah, but at least we now have someone who can compete against them at the highest level. Another success story was that of team captain and Sheffield’s golden girl, Jessica Ennis. Ennis, who cruised to World Championship glory in Berlin last summer, beat the Olympic champion on her way to another record-breaking gold in the woman’s heptathlon. There was also a very surprising gold for Andy Turner in the men’s 110m hurdles and a Welsh 1-2 in the men 400m hurdles, Di Greene leading home Rhys Williams.
As ever, there was the odd failure that letdown the team’s overall performance. 4th in Berlin in 2009, William Sharman was amongst the favourites to win the men’s 110m hurdles, but whilst Turner clattered his way to the gold, a false start in the semi-finals put paid to Sharman’s dreams. Diabolical and unacceptable changeovers saw both 4x100m relay teams miss out on final berths. Although the men have a history of dropping the baton (Sydney 2000, Edmonton 2001, Gothenburg 2006), the women’s failure was something of a surprise. The main international star was France’s Christophe Lematre, who charged to three gold medals, in the men’s 100m, 200m and part of the French squad triumph in the 4x100m relay.
The likes of America, Jamaica and Kenya may have been missing, but Team GB rose to the fore, and alongside Russia, has proved to be the best that Europe has to offer. With the Commonwealth Games in India likely to be decimated by withdrawals due to security threats, athletics attention will now turn to the 2011 World Championships in Seoul, Korea.
London 2012 is getting ever closer and our athletes have shown what they can do, and made us all proud to be British.
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