Gunnell highlights Olympic challenge for British athletes

Former Olympic and world 400m hurdles champion Sally Gunnell has laid out the massive challenge in view of the London Olympics next year, outlining the necessary steps that British athletes have to take to meet home medals anticipation:

http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/athletics/0713815-gunnell-tells-british-athletes-prove-london-2012-form-year

So what do think? Can British athletes raise their game to meet the target of ten medals set by UKA boss Niels De Voss? The floor is yours...

Interesting to see a tough target being set. 10 medals is asking a lot but on the other hand it's the sort of result that could be used to justify the whole Olympics investment. Maybe though the target being set is just that - something to aim at and if they fall a medal or two short of that it would still be a major achievement.

Would be nice to think that 10 medals would inspire future generations but we've been there before with golden generations being followed by barren periods. Let's hope all that investment and much greater professionalism is going to deliver sustainable improvements.

I'm really optimistic about our prospects. I think that Niels de Voss now has the right idea.

Apart from the fun team games at the end of the Olympics, individual medals may well be scarce, as happens at every Olympics for the last forty years I have watched them, is how other countries seem to pull something special out of the bag. As I look around the world I can see a deal of them showing all the right signs for a medal.

My guesses for potential uk medals are;

Ennis
idowu
Greene
A Female 400h
A Female middle distance runner

So that is five for the moment, we may be able to add to this tally.

I do not for one minute believe any number of medals will improve participation in the UK, recent history supports this.

flashcoach wrote:Apart from the fun team games at the end of the Olympics, individual medals may well be scarce, as happens at every Olympics for the last forty years I have watched them, is how other countries seem to pull something special out of the bag.

Britain seems also to have a tradition to pull something special out of the bag; it was Tasha Danvers-Smith and Germaine Mason in Beijing, the boys' 4x100m and Kelly Sotherton in Athens as well as Darren Campbell and Kelly Holmes, given her shaky build-up to the Games in Sydney. So the same rule applies for all, while the British team is shaping up considerably stronger than either in Beijing or Athens.

I remember a similar kind of debate on the BBC 606 site last year before the Europeans. A rather soft target had been set for that one with several posters dampening expectations for anything much better. In the end they did far better than those posters had suggested we'd achieve.

This time I think the management are looking for something to aim for, knowing that something not quite at that level would still be excellent. To my mind, anything less than 8 medals, with at least one gold would be disappointing though.

Home advantage ought to count for something in 2012 so I'm expecting a few break-out years for some this year in advance of some pleasant surprises next year.