WHY IMPORTS THREATEN THE NEXT GENERATION
Lucy Hatton was distraught and being helped to her feet having crashed into the fourth hurdle at the World championships trials in Birmingham. She is 20 and will need a wildcard to compete, if she is still interested. It is another triumph for uK athletics.
What is guaranteed, barring injury, is that Great Britain will now be represented in the 100 metre hurdles by american sisters, tiffany Porter and cindy ofili, born to a British mother. cindy had arrived in this country two weeks before the trials, to scepticism from Hatton. She said cindy was only here because she couldn’t make the american team, an accusation previously levelled at tiffany.
It’s a fair point. neither girl would qualify for the current united States team on their British trial times. there are 12 americans faster than tiffany, and 16 quicker than cindy. Even their best runs of 2015 wouldn’t be enough.
now we can argue that, if Hatton wants to keep them out, she needs to go faster and stop falling over the hurdles, and this is true.
It may equally be true, however, that a 20-year- old who had dedicated her young life to athletics and had improved sufficiently to win a silver medal over 60m at the European Indoor championships in March, had been placed under incalculable pressure by the unexpected arrival of an american interloper, looking to steal her World championships place. and that uK athletics, as ever, had done absolutely nothing to protect an athlete raised through its system.
Perhaps, at the trials, Hatton was simply trying too hard. Her back went into spasm trying to compete with another rival who is using this nation, and being used by uK athletics, as a means to an end.
yes, the ofili sisters qualify legitimately. that isn’t the point. the basic principle isn’t right. Domestic athletes deserve more support and loyalty, or where is the motivation? ultimately the well will run dry if uK athletics continues to make it plain that they are open to offers from abroad.
How easy is it to be a young athlete in Britain? Put it like this — in november 2013, Hatton put herself up for sale on eBay in a desperate attempt to find sponsorship. Despite this, and undaunted by the struggle, she took 0.27sec from her personal best going into the European Indoors in Prague this year and then got faster in each of the three heats — every run setting a new British standard for the fastest time by an under 23 athlete. overall, she improved by 0.43sec, beating a record that had stood since 1987. and no, she isn’t going to be winning gold in Rio De Janeiro next year — but neither are the americans replacing her.
What Hatton is, though, is the best this country can produce — and if that doesn’t matter to uK athletics, why should athletics matter to the next generation?