Head Coach Charles van Commenee inspired a group of underachieving athletes at the Europeans (Getty Images)During the six-day event at the European Championships in Barcelona, Great Britain presided in their best ever showing in Europe's premier athletics competition since Split in 1990. The team won 19 medals, including six golds, which may signal green shoots of recovery on the way to London 2012.
This has led to many to believe that head coach Charles van Commenee has managed to turn a culture of failure and contentment, into competitiveness and joy. Take 110m hurdler Andy Turner for example. He has had a succession of injuries during his career, and has grossly underachieved given his potential as successor to Colin Jackson and third fastest Brit of all time. But last Friday, he became European Champion when few expected he could achieve this feat. Turner clocked a 13.28 time, and although this is over a third of a second off the best time in the world this year, he is now consistently close to his personal best which should yield for greater development.
Arguably, the shining light on GB's personnel was Mo Farah, who claimed gold in the 10,000m and 5,000m. The long-distance double is an incredible feat in any major championships, especially in the context that Farah had to contest a qualifying round in the 5,000m just two days after running in the 10,000m event. He ran with tremendous confidence and execution, timing his attack 300m before the finish on Spain's Ayad Lamdassem inside a partisan Spanish cauldron. He'll certainly have to improve his tactics and durability if he is to leave any mark on the African dominance in these two disciplines, but the good thing to take from these championships is that Farah will carry a tremendous amount of confidence as a competitor - something we probably didn't see early in his athletic career.
Heptathlete Jessica Ennis and Triple Jumper Phillips Idowu are two of Great Britain's pin-up wall athletes - both more than capable of winning gold medals on a world level, not just European. These championships proved they are head and shoulders above the field, but their rivals will come good at some stage in the future no doubt. Teddy Tamgho, who recorded a 17.98m jump in New York earlier this year, looked ominous, while Natalya Dobrinkska, who had been a thorn in Ennis's compatriot Katy Sotherton's side before, certainly gave Ennis something to think about in their final 800m event.
Di Greene blossomed into a world-class 400m hurdler, destroying his personal best and leaving a huge and ominous prescence in his event, something arch-rival Rhys Williams would have loved to have positioned himself in.
The championships will live fondly in peoples' minds for a while. Seeing Cristoph Lemaitre win both sprint titles in the 100m and 200m was good for European Athletics as they seek to uncover new talent to rival Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt. Other names that should be eavesdropped are Chris Tomlinson in the long jump - earning a bronze medal, Chris Thompson's silver in the 10,000m, Jenny Meadows in the 800m with bronze, and Mark Lewis-Francis silver in the 100m - it's good to see that years of training and commitment to their sport has yielded an achievement of tangible reward.
Van Commenee will surely want more improvement from his athletes, as he will look to continuously improve the coaching and athletic structure in Great Britain to achieve the best it could possibly achieve in London 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment