|
 |
 | | | You are in: Athletics: European Athletics |
|
| |  Saturday, 10 August, 2002, 20:05 GMT 21:05 UK Brits savour golden glow Jackson won gold just moments after Hansen
In the space of three minutes on Saturday afternoon, Britain turned a golden hue in Munich. As Colin Jackson stood behind his blocks, calming himself before the last major outdoor final he is likely to run, he glanced over to his left and watched Ashia Hansen leap to the European title. A few moments later, Jackson was diving through the line to claim his own gold. Across the infield, in front of a rammed grandstand, his team-mate Hansen jumped in the air delightedly and ran down the back straight, whirling the Union flag around her head.
For Jackson, the day after Steve Backley had beaten him to the honour of being the first British athlete to win four consecutive European titles, there were all the little touches you have come to expect after 18 years of watching him take medals. As ever, he bolted from the blocks like a greyhound from the traps, clocking a reaction time that was so close to perfect it was virtually in bed with it. As ever, his technique was smoother than a sprinter's shaved leg, sending him whistling over each hurdle with hips rising no more than was absolutely necessary. As ever, he dipped in such exaggerated fashion at the finish that he went clean under the measuring beam, almost tickling the track with the tip of his nose.
But after the disappointment of only taking silver at the Commonwealths last week, this was a sweet moment indeed. "I'm so pleased - this was absolutely fantastic," he said afterwards. "It's amazing. When I won in Split (in 1990) I was under a lot of stress and strain. Here I was a lot more confident in what I'd done in my career. "I know I've trained very well, and at the back of my mind I knew I was going to make it. Not able to run fast in Manchester stirred me on. "I was on the line when they showed Ashia's distance on the scoreboard and I thought 'That's a massive jump'. It put a huge smile on my face." Hansen may not have the weight of medals that Jackson can boast, but her performance, set free of the historical perspective, was if anything more impressive than that of her team-mate.
No-one expected Heli Koivula to go 50 centimetres beyond her personal best, and when Hansen nailed a huge jump in the penultimate round only to see it red-flagged, the title looked to be gone. But, exactly as she did in the Commonwealths, and exactly as Backley had done on Friday, she found something special at the very death. "Heli put the pressure on and all I was doing was making no-jumps because I was making so many mistakes," said Hansen. "I knew a big jump was there, and it gave me confidence knowing that I had done it in Manchester. "But I couldn't believe it when I saw that I had just jumped 15m. I was so excited I started to cry." It was just what the British team needed too. After a couple of disappointments in Munich, they needed a lift ahead of the final day of competition. In the time it has taken you to read this feature, Jackson and Hansen did exactly that. | |
Top European Athletics stories now:  Links to more European Athletics stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  | | | | | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|  E-mail this story to a friend |
| |
| Links to more European Athletics stories |
| | | ||
 | ||||
 | | Back to top
| ||
| ------------------------------------------------------------ BBC News >> | BBC Weather >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |
