Today several finals turned out to be nail-biting affairs for the British fans and athletes.
While in the men’s high jump final Samson Oni failed to go over a single height, team mate Robbie Grabarz dominated the competition from the start clearing all heights up to 2.28m in his first attempt. After his clearance of 2.31m he failed on 2.33m, but was still in gold position unless the second placed Raivydas Stanys could manage the 2.33m. After a long wait and only being able to watch and hope everyone could breathe a sigh of relief when the Lithuanian failed his third attempt, leaving Grabarz with gold and his first medal in a senior championship.
At the same time Goldie Sayers was fighting for a medal in the women’s javelin final. In the end she closely had to settle for fourth with 63.01m with the qualification leader Vira Reberyk taking the gold (66.86m) medal ahead of the two German throwers Obergföll (65.12m) and Stahl (63.69m).
Only an hour after the second British medal of the championship was won two more were to follow. In a strong 800m field Lynsey Sharp stunned her opponents by performing the quickest final 100 metres of an 800m race you could possibly imagine, coming out of nowhere, passing one athlete after another and eventually taking silver on the line in a new PB of 2:00.52. Jemma Simpson came seventh in 2:02.14.
Minutes after Sharp’s victory the 400m hurdlers must have felt inspired. Rhys Williams whose tactic of winning a race on the final straight always paid off in the heat and semi-finals, proved that this is how to win a 400m hurdle race. While everyone else was fading on the last metres Williams rose to the occasion, ran a superb 49.33sec, and collected another gold medal for the team. Nathan Woodward could not help but watch other athletes overtaking him on the final metres and had to settle for seventh in 50.20sec.
Although not in the 400m hurdle final, once again the mischievous bends in Helsinki’s Olympic stadium were causing troubles for the athletes. This time the 200m sprinters had to face the forces caused by the tight bends that almost pushed them sideways out of their lanes.
Nonetheless, both British runners easily qualified for the semi-finals with Chris Clarke coming second in his heat in 20.83sec. Danny Talbot on a tighter inside lane struggled more, almost being thrown out of his lane, but comfortably won his heat on the last metres in 20.82sec. In the women’s heats the only British athlete Abi Oyepitan followed Talbot’s example, casually winning her heat in 23.05sec.
In the semi-finals all three athletes ran courageous races leaving both male sprinters with spots in the final (20.20 GMT). Chris Clarke came second in his race with 20.90sec and after the leader of Talbot’s race got disqualified as another casualty of the bends Talbot progressed to the final as his semi’s winner in 20.69sec. Abi Oyepitan came fourth in her semi and missed out on the final by 0.01sec in 23.22sec.
Richard Buck, who got used to the tight bends over the last two days, ran a courageous 400m final. He closed up strongly on the last metres, leaving him in fifth position with 45.92sec. Lee McConnell finished fifth in her final in 52.20sec while Sweden’s Moa Hjelmer won in a new national record of 51.13sec.
For British record holder Lawrence Okoye the discus qualification was not a challenge either. His 64.86m were enough to be amongst the 12 athletes to progress to tomorrow’s final (17.10 GMT). For fellow Brits Brett Morse and Abdul Buhari 58.71m and 58.57m were insufficient in a strong field of throwers.
As another British record holder, Sophie Hitchon will be throwing the hammer in the final (Sunday 14:00 GMT) in a field, where World Record holder Betty Heidler is no longer present after a poor qualification round. With her PB of 71.61m Hitchon could definitely have a say in the fight for medals.
The men’s long jump qualification saw three British athletes competing in a very close affair. JJ Jegede was the one smiling in the end with a leap of 8.01m and only missing out on the direct qualification standard by centimetres. He was the only Brit to make it through to Sunday’s final (15.45 GMT). Frustrating for Chris Tomlinson was the fact that he missed out on a spot in the final by only 5cm with 7.84m. Julian Reid’s 7.73m were also insufficient. However, the result of 7.73m and a new season’s best shouldn’t leave him too disappointed.
After three days of competition and with three gold and one silver medal Great Britain and Northern Ireland are currently ranked fourth in the medal standings behind Russia, Germany and France. With two more days, several athletes in finals and the relays still to come the prospects for the team are looking rather nice in the Olympic year.
