Next weekend sees the 30th staging of the European Indoor Athletics Championships, this year held in the Italian city of Turin.
Turin is famous as the headquarters of motor giants Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo and will forever be linked with Michael Caine's 60s classic movie "The Italian Job", as well as being home to, surprisingly (!), the Turin Shroud and Juventus FC. In 2006 it hosted the Winter Olympics and, in 1997, the late Primo Nebiolo, then president of the IAAF, brought the World Cross Country Championships to his home city of Turin, even though there was no suitable existing course in the city and a ready-made one had to be constructed by bringing in sand and turf to one of the city's parks. Amazingly it was a success (I was there).
In her blog on the BBC Sport website, BASC Patron Athlete Katharine Merry states the case for the value of indoor athletics. Some athletes choose to ignore indoor competition and to continue with their winter training, whilst for others who do take part indoors it's a useful break from a rigorous training regime and a chance to test fitness and form in a competitive environment.
So which British athletes can we look out for in Turin? Mo Farah is in the form of his life, having broken the British 3000m indoor record twice within the last month in Glasgow and then in Birmingham. Marilyn Okoro and Jenny Meadows will be in the frame in the 800m and the evergreen Donna Fraser continues to defy the passing of time in race after race.
Injury has robbed us of defending triple jump champion Phillips Idowu and Kelly Sotherton's participation in the pentathlon is far from certain.
Whatever your opinion is on the inclusion of Dwain Chambers (and let's face it, everyone has an opinion on it), there's no denying that he has looked in mightily impressive form throughout the indoor season and, after his victory in Birmingham, fellow 60m sprinter Simeon Williamson's confidence of getting onto the medal podium will also be high.
As always, a large party of members of the British Athletics Supporters Club will be travelling out to cheer the British team on. If you're one of them then let us know your first-hand thoughts from trackside.
Arrivederci!
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I watched the programme last night about the buildup to the 8 minute handing over ceremony in the Birds Nest last August. I didn't find it at all stimulating, probably because when I watched the ceremony on TV in Beijing I was totally baffled by it, as I couldn't understand how it sold London and 2012 to people around the world, and if I couldn't understand it, I was sure the Chinese couldn't understand it, and indeed the rest of the world wouldn't as well. I found the ceremony a total disappointment and a missed opportunity. Hopefully I am wrong!
ReplyDeleteI think the subsequent programmes, such as next Wednesday's one about development of the Stratford site, will be of more interest to the serious athletics enthusiast than the first one was, Peter. Still the BBC interactive coverage from Turin via the red button has been consistently good so far, I thought.
ReplyDeleteIt's been very good and kept me away from watching the very boring Test Match cricket in the West Indies. Hopefully people are aware that the athletics is being shown on BBC interactive as I suspect many people don't. However a big thankyou to Athletics Weekly for bringing it to my attention. And many congratulations to Mo Farah on his Gold Medal
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