Local heroes take back seat
Sep 1 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal
IT was billed as the homecoming for heroes, but for the North East contingent at the Gateshead Grand Prix, the reminders of Beijing compounded their misery.
Britain’s four Olympic medallists got the receptions they deserved from a healthy crowd but Chris Tomlinson, Nick McCormick and Vicky Barr must have felt like unwanted guests at someone else’s party as they floundered in a murky, cool and wet Gateshead.
Christine Ohuruogu, Germaine Mason, Natasha Danvers and Phillips Idowu lapped up the attention, even if only the first two rose to it with victory yesterday. But on a day when news of likely post-Olympics incriminations at UK Athletics were starting to emerge, the thoughts of those in the sodden crowd were not on the future or even the present, but saluting those who did so well in the recent past. Middlesbrough’s Tomlinson looked a broken man when he trudged off after finishing seventh out of eight in the long jump. Five weeks after tearing his calf at Crystal Palace – effectively robbing his chance of making the Beijing final – the mental damage was there for all to see.
On and off the runway Tomlinson looked deflated, producing six jumps which were all legal but mediocre by his standards.
American Miguel Pate opened with 8.04m and the best Tomlinson could manage was 7.54m. He was reluctant to lay himself bare again afterwards but unlike plenty of far better rewarded sportsmen, refuses to duck a question.
“I found it very difficult,” he said. “Some people are motivated by medals, others by money ($7,000 was on offer to the winners). I was just flat. I need a long break to get my enthusiasm back.
“To have been 2cm away from winning the World Championships six months ago to where I am now, I’m devastated. I don’t know what’s going to happen. The stats might not show it but I’d been jumping well before the Olympics. I had some really long jumps in training and some long fouls. I don’t know where that’s gone.”
Barr also went to Beijing but was overlooked for the 4x400m relay. It was a similar experience on her home track for the girl from Chester-le-Street.
“Kelly (Sotherton) and Christine got a bigger cheer than I did,” she said. “I think I could only hear my mam and that was it! It was like my first race of the season again because all I’ve done is train for five weeks. I don’t think I’m ready for my season to finish.” Barr (52.81secs) was seventh in the 400m, scheduled last thanks to the presence of Ohourugu, Britain’s only Beijing track and field champion.
As two years ago when equalling his 100m world record here, Asafa Powell stole the show, posting 9.87secs. “If I was running like that in Beijing it would have been different,” said the Jamaican, a disappointing fifth then. Powell was not the only one to defy the rain, so did Bernard Lagat, Kenenisa Bekele and Viviam Cheruiyot – with the fastest women’s 3,000m time in the world this year. But the attitude of high jumper Mason was more typical. “Once I’d got the winning height of 2.27m I didn’t want to risk injuring myself so left it at that,” he said. If the purists were disappointed, Martyn Rooney (400m), Marilyn Okoro (800m), Lisa Dobriskey (1,500m) and Goldie Sayers (javelin) ensured the partisans were not by matching Mason and Ohourugu as British winners. Hexham’s McCormick failed to qualify for China and although he did not need it, Bekele reminded him of the work he has to do.
The Ethiopian broke the stadium’s 3,000m record in 7:31.94, with McCormick ninth 12 seconds behind. “A lot of people think I should have made the Olympics and I do too but you’ve got to be realistic,” he said. “There’s so many Kenyans running and not just for Kenya.”
