By Steve Cram

The very promising Nicola Sanders won gold in the 400m

Great Britain expected to win medals at the European Indoors and the team topped the medal standings with 10, which is very good.

I do feel less pessimistic than I did at the start of the winter, particularly as some of Britain's biggest names were missing in Birmingham.

It was also important that, as hosts, Great Britain did well - something we're all too aware of for London 2012.

But the championships have to be put into context and the European Indoors are the lowest level of competition that most of these athletes will take part in on the senior international stage.

The team also won seven medals at the same event in Madrid two years ago. So if Great Britain wants to measure where the team is in real terms then it is individual performances which count most.

Mo Farah is aiming for the world cross country championships at the end of this month and it is very difficult to combine that with the 3,000m

Nicola Sanders' time of 50.02 seconds in the 400m and Phillips Idowu's leap of 17.56m in the triple jump would have won medals in any championship.

The women's 800m was world class, and so for Marilyn Okoro and Jenny Meadows to finish fourth and fifth is still a very, very good performance.

There were some good displays from some young, developing athletes too, notably Martyn Bernard taking bronze in the high jump and Craig Pickering's silver in the 60m. Their careers are just taking off now and the European Indoors are the first rung on the ladder.

There were also a number of personal and season's bests, which is what every team is looking for.

Britain also won one or two other medals that would be difficult to replicate at other championships.

There were, however, very few failures out there and Andy Turner in the 60m hurdles was perhaps the most disappointing.

Gardener's display in the 60m may give him hope for the summer

I did not think Mo Farah or Jo Pavey would win a medal in their respective 3,000m races.

Jo at her absolute best would have done well to have got on the podium and she has bigger things to focus on with her plans to step up to the 10,000m.

Mo is aiming for the world cross country championships at the end of this month and it is very difficult to combine the two events. He is a young, developing athlete though, so there is nothing to worry about in terms of his future talent.

I was not surprised Jason Gardener won the 60m but I was surprised that he ran that fast and hats off to him.

He has had a tough time recently and has been contemplating his career. Deep down he knows it is difficult to convert his indoor form to outdoors.

But without meaning to be controversial, Gardener has suffered at the hands of drugs cheats in the past, and if more people are being caught he may think it might be worth giving it one more shot over 100m. I'd like to see him stick around with the team for another couple of years.