A True Brit

In many respects Jessica Ennis has been the poster girl of this Olympic Games - and she's repaid that in style with a series of personal bests in the individual Heptathlon events and a British Record overall. Indeed - she made sure of the record - and put on a show for the crowd - by running the fastest time in the 800m even though she had no need too.

But if Jess Ennis has been the poster-girl, Tom Daley has been the poster-boy man. From a 14 year old boy in Beijing, he has carried medal hopes for this games through the past 4 years. He's had to grow up very publicly and has had the personal tragedy of his father's death played out in a very public arena. Next week, is has chance to shine; if he does his best he can take Gold, but if he doesn't we still shouldn't belittle his achievements - and I hope the press remember this.

But this post is about another, undersung, hero of British athletics - and a man whose story deserves to be celebrated.

Mo Farah arrived in the UK at the age of 8, a member of a family of refugees fleeing conflict in Somalia. Settling in West London, Mo took up running at school and was spotted by a PE teacher who encouraged him - although initially his ambition was to play right-back for Arsenal. At 13, he entered the an English Schools Cross Country. After finishing 9th that year, he entered again the following year and won the first of what would be 5 medals. 

After a number of years competing as a junior - which included winning the 5,000m European Athletics Junior Championships - he moved onto the Senior circuit in 2005. He concentrated on the track races - winning silver in the 5.000m at the 2006 Europeans - although he won the European Cross Country Championship in same year.

Less successful events followed in the next couple of years including a disappointing Olympics  in Beijing when he didn't make the 5,000m finals. Since then, he has collected Gold Medals in European for both 5,000m and 10,000m and World Championship Gold for the 5,000m  and Silver for the 10,000m.

Whilst he trains in the States, and is coached by Cuban-American Alberto Salazer, a former American record holder at both 5k and 10k as well as being an accomplished Marathon runner. While he may have been born in Somalia and train in the U.S., there is no mistaking than when he runs, he runs for Britain.

Last night, in the wake of becoming the first British man ever to win the Olympic 10,000m, a journalist asked him if he'd rather be racing for Somalia. The Huffington Post reports the story:

"When asked in a press conference if he'd have preferred to run as a Somali, he said to the journalist: "Look mate, this is my country.”

Farah added: "This is where I grew up, this is where I started life. This is my country and when I put on my Great Britain vest I'm proud. I'm very proud.

"The support I got today was unbelievable. I couldn't believe it. It was the best moment of my life.

"If it wasn't for the crowd and people shouting out my name, cheering and putting the Union Jack up, I don't think it would have happened.

"To win the Olympics in the place you grew up and went to school just means so much to me.""

Hear! Hear!

Mo is testament to a modern Britain, a place where a refugee child can find a home, a skill and achieve his dreams. Although not the one about playing for Arsenal - that dream has been left for someone else to achieve.

Hats of to Jess and all our medallists and competitors - but two hats off to Mo and his achievements. He makes me proud to be British.

Andrew


P.S. Never mind Olympic Gold though, I didn't know until today that Farah had taken on and beaten The Cube, too:

Roll of Honour 2

A year ago, I wrote this blog in which I trumpeted the achievements of the British Athletics team at the World Championships in Berlin. Yesterday in Barcelona, this years European Championships came to an end.

The target for the team was 15 medals; the result was 19 (6 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze) and a third place position behind Russia and France.

My congratulations go to the whole team for their efforts and to all our medalists and those that set personal bests. Here's a gallery of our Gold Medalists:

Mo Farah - 5,000m and 10,000m

Jessica Ennis - Heptathelon

Phillips Idowu - Triple Jump

Dai Greene - 400m Hurdles

Andy Turner - 110m Hurdles

Roll on the Commonwealth Games, 2011 World Championships, 2012 European Championships... oh, and the small matter of the London Olympics in 2012...

Andrew

Roll of Honour

A year ago, the British Athletics team returned from the Olympics with its tail between its legs. Our athletes contributed just 1 gold and 3 other medals to our haul - a performance that was seen as lacklustre, falling short of a target of five medals and paling next to stunning Cycling, Rowing and Swimming performances.

Last weekend the World Athletics Championships in Berlin came to an end. At the beginning of the week a certain amount of cynicism about our prospects would have been understandable. Our target was 5 medals again, but how would we fair in the real world? Well, the answer was surprisingly well - a six medal haul (2 each of Gold, Silver and Bronze) - was our best result in 10 years...

As always, there were highs and lows - some disappointments and some unexpected (at least for the casual follower) successes. I've already made mention in this column of Jessica Ennis and Phillips Idowu in this column - but I make no apologies for mentioning them again!

After missing the Beijing games, Jessica Ennis became the latest in a distinguished line of British Multi-Eventers - Mary Peters, Daley Thompson, Denise Lewis, Dean Macey, Kelly Sotherton - to reach the top of her sport, and the first to win the World Championship Heptathlon Gold for Britain.

Phillips Idowu's career began in the shade of the World Record holder Jonathan Edwards and last year he got Silver in Beijing. This year he managed a Personal Best and Gold.

Although the ultimate measure of success is the number of medals won, sometimes I feel we do not recognise those athletes who achieve season and lifetime bests in the pursuit of the goal. This is a theme addressed in this blog by the BBC's Tom Fordyce. It's also appropriate in this regard to mention Greg Rutherford who came fifth in the long jump final but had set a new British Record in the qualifying rounds.

Back in the medal table, however, our next medalist was Jenny Meadows who ran a great 800 metres to claim bronze with a personal best and the third fastest time by a British woman ever. Another bronze came courtesy of the Men's 4x100m behind the Caribbean powerhouses of Jamaica (including, of course, Usain Bolt) and Trinidad and Tobago.

Our final medals came on the last day; Lisa Dobriskey gained a silver in the 1500 metres after the second placed athlete was disqualified and our 4 x 400m squad went one better than the sprint relay team and took the second place.

So there you have it - the British Roll of Honour. We may have missed out on medals from Christine Ohuruogu and Paula Radcliffe. There may have been other athletes who under-performed. But the team as a whole produced a sterling effort to beat expectations as they begin the long road to London 2012.

Andrew

Updates

Further to my earlier post, some updates:

Jessica Ennis did indeed do it - Gold for Britain!

After losing the first set, Andy Murray has won in Montreal - 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-1.

And Usain Bolt has annihilated his own World Record, setting a new time of 9.58 seconds! How does he do it? Apparently he thinks he can run 9.4 secs!