By Steve Cram BBC Sport commentator

In his latest column Steve Cram reflects on the highs and lows of Friday's Crystal Palace meeting and what they mean for the European Championships.

Isinbayeva has not quite reached the heights of last year in 2006

Everyone goes around saying how poor athletics is but you only have to come to Crystal Palace to see that is far from the truth. The capacity here is 7,500 and it sells out well in advance.

When I came down to the stadium in the early afternoon there were plenty of fans asking for tickets - and there were even touts selling them.

If organisers put on a good quality meeting with plenty of British athletes, who are performing well, then people will come down and get behind athletics.

There are a lot of new names coming through which fans are starting to pick up on - the likes of 100m sprinter Sherone Simpson and 200m star Xavier Carter - and in two years' time they will be big stars.

Even further down the line, another six years, the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics will be upon us.

Yes, there is still a long way to go in terms of British medals but we have already got the support and spirit for the sport in this country.

I find myself in an unusual scenario when it comes to assessing Great Britain ahead of the Europeans because this time I think we will struggle.

In Munich, four years ago, we won seven golds but there will be nothing like that in Gothenburg.

Having said that, and it does sound contradictory, our medal prospects have improved slightly in the last two weeks.

Mo Farah ran the second fastest time by a Briton over 5,000m last week to vastly improve his European ranking and he followed that up with a good 1500m in London.

There are a clutch of female 800m runners - Becky Lyne, Jemma Simpson, Amanda Pritchard and Marilyn Okoro, who are running under two minutes. They are looking almost as good as the Russians now.

Things are also looking up for the 800m boys and you never know, Michael Rimmer, Sam Ellis and Michael Hill could all reach the European final, which would be the first time in a long time for British athletes.

Tim Benjamin is improving in the 400m and ran a season's best of 45.38 seconds so he will be in the mix for the 400m.

In the women's event, Commonwealth champion Christine Ohuruogu was a real disappointment in last place and she should consider whether she is really in any kind of shape to take her place in Sweden

European sprinting continues to be as bad as it ever has been and, as far as Britain goes, it is a real concern.

Dwain Chambers was certain to be selected in the 100m but Christian Malcolm did not recover from a hamstring problem - the 200m would have been there for the taking if he had been.

Obikwelu is the fastest man in Europe but world number nine

As for Chambers, well, he hasn't raced since his heat at the Manchester trials. It is not impossible to run off that and perhaps there is still a chance of a medal for him.

Portugal's Francis Obikwelu and Frenchman Ronald Pognon look a bit better than everyone else when it comes to form.

Obikwelu finished fourth in London in 10.09 seconds behind Asafa Powell and American pair Leonard Scott and Shawn Crawford.

In world terms, Obikwelu is ranked as the ninth fastest man this season but the top European sprinter, which tells you how big the gap is.

All the Britons failed to reach the final and Mark Lewis-Francis, who has been selected for Europe, well, he looked indifferent

There will be a lot of pressure on the Swedish athletes when they compete on home soil in Gothenburg.

World high jump champion Kajsa Bergqvist, Olympic champion Stefan Holm and Olympic triple jump champion Christian Olsson will all be expected to win gold.

All three of them looked in great shape in London and Bergqvist had a world record attempt in the high jump at 2.10m - her third attempt was pretty close too.

A couple of other big names are struggling a bit at the moment.

Yelena Isinbayeva won the pole vault in London with a season's best of 4.91m but she has been beaten this season and she's not been looking that special, which for her is unusual.

The veil has also dropped from world record holder Kenenisa Bekele as he was beaten over 5,000m for the second time this season.