Team GB Third at European Team Championship

4 months ago 22nd Jun 10:23

Dwain Chambers and Phillips Idowu led Great Britain to a third place finish at the European Team Championship in Leiria, Portugal.

Despite not competing in some of the more high quality races so far this season Dwain Chambers stormed to the sprint double to take full points for the UK.

His 100m victory was one of the highlights of the first day as he, despite a poor start, obliterated the field clocking 10.7 seconds. There was also GB success in the women’s 100m as Emily Freeman pulled out an impressive performance to win.

It was a welcome return to the track for Tim Benjamin who has been plagued with injury since making the World Championship final back in 2005. But he showed that he was back in good shape as he bagged another victory for GB with a time of 45.57 seconds.

Mo Farah, who had a great indoor season, ran in a controversial 5000m race which saw the last athlete across the finish line with seven, five and three laps remaining was eliminated.

The organisation of this new rule, introduced just for this meeting, was poorly organised and the change of pace as all the runners sprinted for the line to prevent elimination had a detrimental effect on all the races ran this way.

However it didn’t seem to bother Farah as he stayed at the front of the field for most of the race. He pulled clear of the Spaniard who has tracked him for most of the race with 300m to go to cruise to victory.

And with other great performances from David Greene, who won the 400m hurdles as well as a new British record from pole vaulted Kate Dennison Great Britain finished the first day at the top of the rankings.

While it was predicted that day two wasn’t going to be as successful triple jumper Phillips Idowu continued the influx of points. Expected to win the event Idowu had to give way to the Olympic Champion Nelson Evora, but he showed that he was in great shape and a real gold medal contender for the World Championships in August.

Chambers returned to the track on day two to replace the injured Rikki Fifton, who pulled him hamstring during the 4x100m the day before, I the 200m.

Although we don’t see Chambers run too many 200m races he once again cruised to victory as he asserted himself as the UK’s top sprinter.
 
Andy Turner felt that he had a point to prove as he stood on the start line after getting his Lottery finding cut last year. Turner was the favourite to win but and he didn’t disappoint with a time of 13.42 seconds.

Christine Ohuruogu continued her preparations to defend her 400m world championship title as she took to the track to run in the 200m. But battling with illness Ohuruogu struggled to stay with the field but her powerful finish did bag her fourth place.

The 4x400m rounded off the competition as the women managed a third place finish, despite a below par quartet, but the men continued GB’s longstanding tradition in this event as they cruised home in first place.

After two days of fierce competition, and despite having many key athletes missing, team GB put in a great performance to finish third behind Germany and Russia.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw