Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS KEEPER OF THE FLAME
Team GB need Mo more than ever, as medal haul could hit an all-time low
SIR MO FARAH is one gold medal away from joining Usain Bolt as the World Championships’ greatest athlete – and Great Britain needs him to deliver like never before.
The knight strider goes today in the heats of the 5,000m, an event he has won at the last three Worlds.
Victory in Saturday’s final would set him alongside Bolt as the only athletes to have won seven world individual track and field titles.
Of greater importance to the underperforming home team, it would double a medal tally which is on course to be the worst of all time.
Not since 2005 have Great Britain & Northern Ireland failed to win at least six medals. With five days to go, they have just one – and Farah got that too.
From a sport benefitting to the tune of £27,136,245 of UK Sport funding for the four-year Olympic cycle through to Tokyo (only rowing receives more), that is not a lot of bang for your buck.
“Clearly, there’s something wrong,” Darren Campbell, British sprinter turned outstanding BBC radio pundit, said. “The talent we have is better than that.
“The problem we have is the mental side of things. We can’t pretend it’s not happening. If medals are not won, funding is cut.”
The host nation, benefitting from sell-out partisan crowds for almost every session, has been set a target by UK Sport of at least six medals.
Farah aside, it is hard to envisage another individual delivering, though the relays could yet chip in with one or two podium places. Medal hopes Laura Muir, Katarina Johnson-thompson, Holly Bradshaw, Andy Pozzi, Sophie Hitchon and CJ Ujah have all come up short.
Campbell said: “Where I’ve always felt British athletics has missed a trick, is they don’t have people who have worn the GB vest involved.
“You only gain experience by somebody sharing theirs, or by making mistakes. So why would you let the athletes make mistakes, when they can gain experience from people that’s walked the path?”
Campbell, the last GB sprinter to win an individual global medal, back in 2003, has not been approached. Brendan Foster, about to retire from TV commentary, is another he says should have been asked.
He also wonders why athletes were allowed to skip the trials, adding: “The most important thing for any athlete is you can’t be afraid to compete, otherwise what are you training for?
“Look, we have a generation of young and talented athletes, who need guidance in the right way.
It’s not that the coaches aren’t good, but what we don’t tend to do in the UK is share knowledge. And, without us sharing knowledge, how are we going to create more greatness?
“Not everybody will win medals but the lessons they learn along the way might help them become a champion in something else.
“So we’ve still got to teach the lessons – and I don’t think the lessons are being taught.” healthy and had not been tested by any doctor.
“I arrived at the stadium ready to run but I found a trap set there and was denied entrance,” said Botswana’s Makwala.
Track legend Michael Johnson said the IAAF “had got it horribly wrong, either by disqualifying the athlete unfairly or not communicating to the Botswanan team what the processes were.
“The elephant in the room is that Wayde Van Niekerk is an IAAF favourite. Conspiracy theories are going round.”
Londoner Kyle Langford missed out on a medal in the 800m by just four hundredths of a second.