Team GB have golden (and silver and bronze) day at European Championships... and there's more to come

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By Neil Wilson in Barcelona

Golden touch: Andy Turner hits the line first to win 110m hurdles in Barcelona


Gold for Andy Turner, silvers for Christian Malcolm and Michael Bingham, bronzes for Martyn Rooney, Jenny Meadows and Perri Shakes-Drayton - last night was one of those nights for Britain that athletes dream of.

Saturday promises to be another at the European Championships when the spirits soar and thoughts turn to another Olympic arena in London in two years with Mo Farah, hurdler Dai Greene and heptathlete Jessica Ennis all likely to add to the 11 medals Britain have now. Only Russia have more.

Turner, a couple of months shy of 30, was the great surprise. He had been taken off National Lottery funding because he had fallen so short of expectations during the past two years.

Yet he grabbed his chance after a mistake by Czech favourite Petr Svoboda and executed his 10 flights of hurdles with near perfection.

Svoboda, leading to seven, hit it hard, wobbled and never recovered. ‘I made less mistakes. That was the key,’ said Turner.

‘I walked round the stadium the other day and I stood by the rostrum and looked at the gold medal position and I thought “I want to stand on that so bad”. I’ve dreamed of doing that, just crossing the line and winning.

‘It’s been a tough two years but all those lows have been worth it. I can forget about them now. I’m lost for words.’

Turner’s gold and Malcolm’s silver was evidence that the withdrawal of Lottery funding for poor performances works.

Both lost it - Malcolm has yet to have it restored - and both are hungrier as a result.





Triple victors: Michael Bingham (L), Perri Sakes-Drayton (C) and Christian Malcolm (R) all won medal on a memorable day for British athletics


Malcolm,31, led Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, winner of the 100metres, for all but the last two strides. Lemaitre won it on the line.

‘I missed the dip because I really thought I’d got it. I didn’t even hear him coming,’ said Malcolm, who provided a second medal of the Championship for Dan Pfaff, the American imported at great expense to direct the training centre at Lee Valley in London.

Lemaitre won his second gold by one-hundredth of a second, 20.37 to 20.38sec. It was hard to know whether to be disappointed or ecstatic.

Malcolm has had a modest two years since his fifth place in Beijing and few would have tipped him to be runner-up here.

The men’s 400m brought two more medals. Not a return to the glory days when Britons won the title at four straight championships but a close run thing given that Rooney had drawn the nightmare inside lane and Bingham the next worst, lane eight.

They were beaten by the Belgian Kevin Borlee and it was the first time for 35 years that his country has won a gold.

Borlee clocked 45.00sec, while Bingham and Rooney shared the same time of 45.23sec.

‘It was difficult to run in eight. I couldn’t see anyone until I got to the finish line,’ said Bingham, who was born in the US but qualifies because of a British father who lives in Nottingham.


In the medals: Jenny Meadows celebrates her bronze in the 800m


Bronze medals came in rich profusion. Shakes-Drayton, 21, is a real prospect at 400m hurdles. From the end of her street in Bow, East London, you can see the Olympic Stadium being built.

She managed to change legs on each of the first four hurdles and was well beaten by the Russian Natalya Antyukh in a championship record of 52.92, the fastest by a European this year, and by Bulgarian Vania Stambolova.

Yet her time of 54.18sec was her best yet, and it represented a big improvement.
‘This is wicked,’ she said. ‘I said fifth would be great. I did loads wrong hurdling-wise but still got a bronze. If I continue the progress I have made every year since I was a junior, then I should be there or there abouts in that stadium in 2012.’

The final bronze of the evening went to Jenny Meadows, a silver medallist in the world championships last year but not in that form all summer.

‘Even three days ago before the heats it was not something I was expecting,’ she admitted after finishing a little more than a second behind the winner Mariya Savinova in 1:59.39.

‘It’s confirmed that I can start believing in myself. I’ve got two world medals and now a European. Maybe now I have to take myself seriously.’


Hanging on: There are more medal hopes to come for Team GB on Saturday


The one great disappointment was the failure of all three Britons in the 1500m final to win anything, a failure made worse in the presence of the greatest of all British middle distance runners, Sebastian Coe.

The locals had something to cheer. Spain’s team captain made a public apology for their performances 24 hours ago but Arturo Casado won gold and Manuel Olmedo bronze as the British challenge faded, Tom Lancashire finishing 10th, Colin McCourt ninth and Andy Baddeley sixth.

As the last event it took some of the shine off the night but with two days of these championships to go, Britain have exceeded the bottom line of 10 medals set by their paymasters at UK Sport.






source: dailymail

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