Euro Dash Or Euro Trash?

With an extra bumper edition of international sporting events taking place this summer, some could have forgotten a little matter of the European Athletics Championships taking place in Barcelona’s Olympic stadium. A site that brought memories of Britain’s past glories of the 1992 Olympic Games of Linford Christie, Sally Gunnell, and a heavily injured Derek Redmond determined to cross the finish line symbolising the spirit of the Games. As the nation builds up to its own moment in the sun as Olympic hosts in 2012, the six day European Championships were seen as an important pre-cursor for athletes to fine tune themselves on the rapidly approaching road to London. The expected stellar performances of the truly world-class Phillips Idowu, Jessica Ennis, and Mo Farah to galvanize their fellow team members. The squad produced a record tally haul of nineteen medals and a respectable third place position on the medal table, the question now leaves where this leaves Britian and its athletes in the run up to sports greatest show on earth in two years time.

Some quarters have dubbed British athletics in a state of good health as a result of their showing in Spain. A claim to a degree cannot be doubted as it was a positive display and readdressed the poor return of one gold medal four years ago in Gothenburg; however the recent performance needs to be put into sharp context. This was a European competition with many of the globe’s leading stars absent, such as the mighty USA and Carribeans nations thus leaving the door for some average athletes to appear to look like world-beaters. This is always going to be an accusation thrown at the championships and its winners regardless of European nationality, but it is not without merit.

The powers-that-be within British athletics and the athletes themselves, should not see this one-time showing as an important watershed overturning years mediocrity because of what was accomplished. An immense amount of work needs to be put into place for the squad to be in a position to even compete with their international counterparts on and off the track. The distinct lack depth across the board in events is of major concern, and more pertinently the championships showed a massive void of British women competitors in a number of disciplines. With two years until the eyes of the world are fixed firmly over Stratford’s Olympic park, it is clear such issues are not going to be resolved within such a time-frame. However, the key issue raised was how to turn overnight winners into consistent top-level performers on a grander stage such as 2012, and for the many years to come after that. A reality that many overlook in Britain, where there is a clear inability of being able to develop time and again, leading sporting athletes regardless of momentary triumphs. After all sport is not just for the 2012 Olympics, it is for life.