The European Championships, which ended in Barcelona on Sunday evening created a lot of sound and light. And there can be few better cities to spend a week in and out of the stadium. But when the world champs roll round in Korea next year, then the Olympic Games in London 2012, much of the noise and glitter will have been reduced to a faint echo and glimmer.
Because, though many of the winning and subsidiary performances would have stood up well in global competition, others indicate that Europe is now a backwater for many events.
And it is the showcase events where the shortfalls are most marked. It’s running that keeps track and field athletics together. No matter how much the occasional pole vault or high jump or javelin can enthrall, the field events are less accessible than the running events, for the simple reason that in a race, the first across the line is obviously the winner, whereas in most cases we have to wait to be told who or what has won in the field.
It requires a certain degree of sophistication, gymnasia, weights and other equipment, to train adequately for many field events, materiel which is often not readily available in many of the 200+ countries which the IAAF boasts in the ‘athletics family’. So it is little or no surprise that European countries rank highly in the technical events. And the results from Barcelona bear that out. The winners in the shot, hammer and discus, men and women were all world class, and in the men’s javelin, it is sufficient to say that Andreas Thorkildsen is the first man to hold European, world and Olympic crowns to emphasise the Norwegian’s pre-eminence in his event.
The same can be said currently of the two Brits, heptathlete Jessica Ennis and triple jumper Phillips Idowu, whose performances in Catalonia stand up globally, the more so since they both improved on the performances which won them world titles in Berlin last year.
Russian women remain a force in the long sprints and middle distances (400-1500m), and Svetlana Feofanova (in the absence of Yelena Isibayeva) and Renaud Lavillenie bow to few in the pole vault. And Blanka Vlasic faced her best opponents, and beat them all with 2.03m
But, and it’s a big but, outside of the Russian 400m(H)/800m women, and maybe the French pair, Mahieddine Mekissi-Benabbad and Bob Tahri in the ‘chase, nothing in the track events would raise an eyebrow in the US and Caribbean (100-400) and East Africa (800m upwards).
The recognition by US college coaches that there is no substitute for volume base training (getting the miles in) has translated into an upsurge in middle and long distance running across the Atlantic. But even then it is only scratching the surface of an East African monolith, whose hegemony can be summed up by three Kenyan performances at the African Championships in Nairobi (1750m alt), concurrent with events in Barca.
David Rudisha ran 1.42.84 in the 800m, following a 1.41.51 in Europe; Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop led all the way, to win the 1500m in 3.36.19; but what about Wilson Kiprop’s 10,000m in 27.32.91, with Moses Kipsiro (Uganda) and Geoffrey Mutai less than a second behind? At close to 2000 metres altitude, this defies belief.
Abubaker Kaki Khamis of Sudan, who was sensible enough to stay away from Nairobi, may beg to differ re the men’s 800 metres. And, yes, championship races are often run slowly, giving fast finishers a chance to win, but frankly no other athlete in the world could live with these Nairobi performances. Suffice to add Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and their female colleagues, and Tyson Gay and Carmelita Jeter in the sprints, plus the US men in the high and quarter hurdles, and the European runners begin to look distinctly second rate.
OK, a European Championship is exactly that, and congratulations to those who won medals. But there was little evidence in Barcelona that the diminishing returns in terms of fewer and fewer medals for European athletes in World and Olympic competition is going to be reversed anytime soon.
Hard to dispute any of that. A very interesting perspective. Daegu will more accurately tell the tale of what can be expected in London. – James O’Brien
Good points Pat. What is disconcerting is the media hype surrounding the medalists and the ability to translate these into medals in London. The media are even stating Mo has a chance of a medal. Whilst I applaud his and Chris Thompson’s effort, on close inspection, the 10,000m was the slowest winning time since 1974. When Marti Vainio won Gold in 1971, all three medalists were within half a second and Marti’s winning time was 27.31!!! Mo was nearly a lap slower.
Unfortunately, there is a chasm between African distance runners and European runners that is widening every passing year.
Once upon a time, the best In Europe could compete with, are were the best in the world. There would have to be a mighty upheaval for this to happen again.
I agree Pat with what you say but wanted to make a few comments about Mo. He definately is world-class and can definately be competitive in major championships (people are forgetting he surged to the front with a lap to go of the 5000 in Osaka WCH ’07). He’s never run a fast 5000 when in peak form but without doubt he’s a sub-13:00 guy. He’s run 3:33.98 and a 7:34 indoors for 3000…..these are impressive runs for a 5,000/10,000 guy. Yes there are a wave of great Kenyans and Ethiopians but he can compete with them. Paul, that’s not valid to compare with Vainio’s times; if someone had pushed the pace a minute faster in Barcelona then Mo would have been there. It was a championship race! Some are fast, some slow…..
Change was certainly not in the air at the just-concluded World Junior Championships, where a Romanian defending champion at 800 meters and one extremely courageous Irish girl in the 1500 were the only Europeans (if one discounts Azerbaijan’s Ethiopian transplant) to capture one of the 30 available medals at races of 800 and above.
Hang on Paul O Cal, Vainio may have done 27:30.99 but he was later revealed to be a cheat. So let’s not use him as an example.
Well thought through and well presented but nothing that hasn’t been repeated on numerous occassions by knowledgeable followers of the sport in Britain and just as frequently ignored by Government, UK Sport and UKA.
Has a decade of lottery funding improved British athletics? The only realistic like for like comparison would be GB today v GB of 10, 15 or 20 years ago and the answer in too many events is “no” and in many others, “very little”. The extra spending on medical back up appears to have had little impact on the incidence of injury either.
Of course, these £10s of millions SHOULD have made a difference so the question has to be asked; “why hasn’t it?”
Very true, but what the European Championships did provide in practically every track event was great competition, great races. It was a great spectacle. Too much emphasis is placed on times achieved in competitions like the Diamond League. Give me a genuine race every time. And in Barcelona the races weren’t necessarily set up for the sprinters: Farah’s courage in the 5000m was great to watch.
Factually, Pat’s piece is hard to dispute. Europe is in decline overall at the global level.
The decline of Europe against the rest of the world:
In World Championships the decline has been steady and very significant
In 2001 Europe won 73 from 138 available – 52.90%
In 2009 Europe won 51 from 141 available – 36.17%
In the Olympics the results are scattered but the latest Games show just 39.72% compared to 43.48% in 2000.
With twice as many events the World Championships are likely to give a better example of the trend.
GB ranked third in these championships and all credit to those who won medals but ignoring the UKA’s hype over the “highest ever medal haul” it should be noted that we won ‘only’ 6 gold compared with 9 gold in our second highest haul of 18 medals in 1990 and 9 gold again in 1998 both of which would have ranked higher on an All Time European medal tables than this latest effort.
The main issue where GB is concerned is as Jim Cowan points out: £millions have been poured into the elite end of our sport but little has improved!
In World Championships the decline has been steady and very significant
In 2001 Europe won 73 from 138 available – 52.90%
In 2009 Europe won 51 from 141 available – 36.17%
Thanks for these statistics John. I am guessing a large amount of this latest percentage is attributed to field events and the technical events. I would like to see a breakdown of % of medals won by European athletes on the track in the 70′s and 80′s compared to the % in the last World and Olympics.