The 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow commenced on the 23rd of July and drew to a close on the 3rd of August. In those ten days alone, an ample sample of athletics has reached us – enough for us to make some verdicts.
Withdrawals
We could in fact, have even made some conclusions before the Games began. The organisers of the Glasgow Games were hit by withdrawals of one big name after another in the lead-up. Mo Farah, who had been due to make an appearance two weeks earlier in the Glasgow Diamond League, was once more forced to pull out, having failed to recover from an abdominal illness. The joint-second fastest man ever, Jamaican Yohan Blake, was also ruled out of the Games owing to a serious hamstring injury he picked up in Glasgow’s Hampden Park during the Diamond League. Another big name, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Britain’s rising heptathlon star, announced her withdrawal a few days before the opening ceremony, as a result of a prevailing foot injury.
In addition to this news came the revelations that Jamaican track stars Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, both multiple Olympic champions, would only run in the 4x100m relays, opting not to run the individual events. It seemed that the Commonwealth Games was going to be a rather quiet affair.
Not so. The Games were filled with plenty of drama in the athletics department once they had begun.
Success Stories and Dramas
Adam Gemili got the ball rolling by winning England’s first medal in athletics. The 20-year-old shone on the track, coming in second only to Jamaican Kemar Bailey-Cole, who trains with Usain Bolt. The university student was put under the spotlight after winning the World Junior Championships in 2012 at just eighteen, in a time much faster than any Brits had managed for quite some time – 10.05 seconds. The youngster’s feat has prompted many zealous athletics fans, hungry for British athletics success in the 100m, to count down the moments until the sprint sensation runs under the big 10 seconds. Gemili’s not worried: “It’s not about times, it’s about position. The times will eventually come. This is just a stepping-stone for the European Championships and then the Olympics in Rio.”
Adam Gemili is one to watch. This is his first senior medal, and the athlete is steadily improving. With a 19.98 time in the 200m to his name (run last year), he is most definitely capable of breaking the 10-second barrier. Patience on the part of spectators, however, not pressure, is required. (Ed: Having since won a European gold medal, Gemili is already proving us right…)
Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare dominated on the track, scooping up the sprint double in the 100m and 200m in Fraser-Pryce’s absence. The athlete, who stands tall at 5ft 11 inches, and is also a skilled long jumper, triumphed in the 100m in a time of 10.85, setting a new Commonwealth Games record and equalling the world leading time. Three days later, the 25-year-old again stormed to victory, winning the 200m in 22.25 seconds, ahead of young English duo Jodie Williams and Bianca Williams. The two Brits (no relation) showed incredible determination, smashing their personal bests to come into to silver and bronze positions in 22.50 and 22.58 respectively.
There was joy and disbelief also for Jazmin Sawyers, the multi-talented 20-year-old who already has a silver medal in her collection after bobsleigh success in the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics. The Bristol University law student began her athletics career as a heptathlete, before choosing to specialise in the long jump. It was for this event that Sawyers earned silver in the Commonwealth Games. Jazmin is also an aspiring songstress, fitting composing and performing songs for gigs into her hectic schedule.
Yet sadly, whilst three English athletes celebrated medals last Thursday, there was heartbreak for another. Shara Proctor, the former British long jump record holder, withdrew from the final, tearful and wracked with pain from a hamstring injury.
The conditions in Hampden Park cannot have helped. The stadium was very often pelted with heavy showers, and the temperature was cold enough for a considerable number of athletes to complain about the weather during their post-race interviews. Many competed with their leggings still on to prevent injuries.
England’s Greg Rutherford showed those that had dared to call him a one-hit wonder by winning long jump gold with a distance of 8.20m. The Olympic champion has just this season set a new British record (8.51m).
There was more home nation victory from the ‘Weirwolf’, with the 35-year-old six-time Paralympic champion David Weir winning gold in the T54 1500m. Visually impaired Libby Clegg brought home Scotland’s first athletics gold in the T12 100m, helping the host nation beat its Commonwealth gold medal record. Eilidh Child, dubbed the ‘poster girl’ of the Games, added to the medal tally with a silver medal in the 400m hurdles. Jo Pavey, forty years old and only 10 months after the birth of a baby daughter, stormed to 5,000 bronze.
The Commonwealth Games, the one major athletics competition in which the nations of the United Kingdom are split rather than united, brought a unique kind of drama to the stage. In the 800m heats, England’s Andrew Osagie and Welshman Joe Thomas found themselves in a scuffle at the finish line. Osagie at first appeared to have blocked the Welshman, but after replays, it seemed there was another possibility: that Thomas had gotten himself into a difficult spot and to qualify, had to push himself out with all his might. The result was that he knocked into fellow Brit Osagie, who then fell to the ground. The verdict of the messy mishap was that Osagie was disqualified and Joe Thomas was put through to the final. One can only hope that this unlucky incident doesn’t create a rift between the two Britons in the future.
There was more drama for the home nations with former 400m hurdles World Champion and defending Commonwealth champion Dai Greene displaying a disappointing performance in Glasgow, finishing in a time two seconds outside of his personal best. The Welshman has been beset by one injury after another and admitted that four months previously, he had not even believed it possible that he would be competing in Glasgow.
Kenya’s David Rudisha, 800m world record holder, was at the centre of still more Commonwealth commotion as he was out-sprinted in the final stages of the 800m final by Botswana’s Nijel Amos.
Drug cheating
Wales and Botswana were embroiled in a different kind of drama when it was revealed that Welshmen Gareth Warburton and Rhys Williams had failed drug tests and 400m Botswanan track star Amantle Montsho tested positive for banned stimulant methylhexaneamine after finishing fourth in the final.
Relays
The relays, as always, provided a positive finish to the athletics of the Games. Jamaican track stars Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce finally made their long-awaited appearances, with the world record holder in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m welcomed fondly by the crowd at Hampden Park in spite of the furore that had ensued earlier in the week owing to claims in the media that Bolt had made disparaging comments about the 20th Commonwealth Games. The Jamaican men and women’s teams powered to gold in all but one of the relay races – winning not only the 4x100m relays but also the women’s 4x400m, although they failed to medal in the men’s event. England produced performances good enough to get onto the podium after each of the relays, with perhaps the most electrifying coming from Matthew Hudson-Smith, who ran a confident anchor leg to win England an unexpected gold. The 19-year-old from Wolverhampton, who only made the 400m his key event this year, held off experienced Bahamian Chris Brown in a torrential downpour, obliterating three seconds of his personal best based on the time he ran for his split.
The team of Adam Gemili, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Richard Kilty and Danny Talbot earned England a well-deserved silver medal in the 4x100m, while Asha Philip, Bianca Williams, Jodie Williams and Ashleigh Nelson ran strongly after Jamaica and Nigeria to get England the bronze in the women’s 4x100m. The women’s 4x400m relay saw Christine Ohuorogu, Shana Cox, Kelly Massey and Anyika Onuora also claim a bronze for England, after the Jamaicans and Nigerians.
The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow were certainly well received. Despite some memorable names being absent, and the recurrence of drug cheating, the Games have drawn enough respect to be declared “the standout Games in the history of the movement” by Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper.
Conclusions in a nutshell
– The Commonwealth Games is a magnificent opportunity for young athletes to flourish on the world stage
– Glasgow 2014 has done nothing to stop other countries from thinking of Britain as having the worst weather on the planet.
– British athletics is in a good place leading up to the European Championships and Rio 2016. The success of our athletes in the individual sprints and sprint relays is evidence that we will soon be able to really threaten other nations.
– Doping is still rife in athletics.
– Some big names could be out for quite some time owing to injuries they have sustained either just before or during the Games.
