A silver lining at Glasgow Commonwealth Games
Our four Commonwealth Games athletes were mostly at the sharp end of the competition in Glasgow and William Sharman came away with a silver medal in the sprint hurdles, but it’s probably safe to say that all were disappointed with their results.
End of the road for Marty?
First in action was Marty Dent for Australia (pictured right). Four years ago on the dusty roads of Delhi he’d placed 6th in his first Commonwealth marathon; hopefully Glasgow could provide another step along the ‘friendly games’ path as he harboured ambitions to compete again at the next edition of these championships, as a 39-year old, when they are held in 2018 at Australia’s Gold Coast.
But things didn’t go right and the Sydney Morning Herald quotes Marty:
“I retired halfway around the race, it’s really hard when you’ve got that long to go and you know you’re not feeling good enough to really push for a challenge. You’re fading; you’ve got three guys coming past you that are not running that fast anyway.
“I went out conservative and then died, so it’s not a real great performance. It’s a shame because the pace probably wasn’t too bad for me but I think I just wasn’t quite in as good enough marathon shape as a I thought I was. ... I’ll keep running around, I’ll probably hit some local races but I don’t think I’ll be spending three weeks overseas preparing for a big meet like this again.”
Well, he didn’t actually say, ‘Never again’, and tough cookie that he is we’ll not be surprised if we see Marty take a final tilt at Commonwealth Games selection in 2018.
The gold that could have been William's
[ezcol_1third]
[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end]
One of the favourites after his scintillating season so far, William Sharman (left) would surely get a medal. He was comfortable enough in his heat of the 110 metre hurdles, running second and just 1/100th of a second in arrears of Barbadian Ryan Braithwaite, youngest ever winner of the IAAF World Championships back in 2009. Come the final later in the day, it wasn’t the former global champion that took the glory though.
William Sharman was away ok but running a ragged race clipping several barriers as he attempted catch and hold on to Jamaica’s Andrew Riley. There were only four hundredths of a second between them at the finish and one could see the disappointment on the face of Will, knowing that if he had run in the manner of any of his earlier efforts this summer, the gold could have been his. There’s no doubt that he is now hungrier than ever for success at the forthcoming European Championships will be exciting.[/ezcol_2third_end]
Goldie named Captain of European team
It would have been a fairy tale if javelin star Goldie Sayers could have got on the podium at Glasgow after injury ruined her 2012 Olympic ambitions. The British Record holder had shown signs that she was well on the road back to glory with a 62.75m to take the British title back in June but, unable to breach the 60m barrier here in the Hampden Park arena, a last round improvement of a few centimetres could only take her to 57.68m and 7th spot. Goldie has been named Captain of the British team for the European Championships.
Flashes of brilliance had come from Phillips Idowu, back into athletics after a break from the sport. In Australia, in May, Phillips was just 1 centimetre shy of 17 metres when winning the Queensland All-Comers Meet, but just one valid effort of 16.45m was not enough to make inroads into the triple jump field at Glasgow and the Belgravian had to settle for 5th place. We understand that he has now pulled out of the European Championships.
Men. 110mH: (29) 2 W Sharman 13.36/-0.3 (2h3 13.49/-2.4). TJ: (2) 5 P Idowu 16.45/0.0. Marathon: (27) 19 M Dent (Australia) 2:19:22. Women. JT: 7 G Sayers 57.68.