European Team Championships 20013 Erikssons final tournament: In depth look at how his team fared

European Team Championships 20013 Erikssons final tournament: In depth look at how his team fared.

European Team Championships 20013 Erikssons final tournament: In depth look at how his team fared

Since London 2012 the head of UK athletics has already changed twice since the resignation of Van Commenee, who stuck to his principles and stepped down after not reaching his targets in Olympic year. The European team championship took place this weekend at Gateshead in what provided departing boss Peter Eriksson’s last international competitive competition in charge due to family commitments,  before Neil Black takes the reigns. He would hope that new boss Neil Black can learn much about his athletes 3 weeks before the world championship trials. This tournament was used as a stepping stone for the athletes in their journey to peak at the optimum time for both the trials and the championships themselves. The team that was selected was one that possessed a large mixture between those experienced seasoned professionals and Olympic medallists along with some young athletes looking to make a smooth transition into the senior ranks.

Just 8 months into a 5 year contract, Eriksson chose to quit in order to return to his family in Canada

There were certain athletes who came into this competition as proven competitors that were expected to put in winning performances in order to gain points for the team . With only three weeks left till the trials, Britain’s top athletes would have been hoping to show some form, unfortunately some such athletes disappointed.

A major disappointment came in the shape of Dai Green in the 400m hurdles. As reigning world champion, and with the disappointment of failing to medal in the London Olympics last year, this is a huge year in his career. He claims to be training very well after an injury free winter and would have hoped to set a performance marker for the worlds top athletes to pay attention to. Unfortunately he disappointed. While running a time of 49.39, in a mediocre field, he only managed second place. He made many hurdling mistakes and tactical errors and will have disappointed Eriksson who would have hoped that his world class athletes would have shown the youngsters the way and set an example of a winning mentality.

In addition to Green, Olympic finalist Holly Bleasedale also had a disaster in the Pole vault in failing to clear a single height, and in turn getting the team zero points. In what was a terrible performance, she will hope to learn and rediscover some form in order to peak for Moscow. Another finalist from London 2012, in fact a gold medallist Greg Rutherford, struggled in the field for the British team. Rutherford failed to win the competition; he only managed third and looked very short of rhythm jumping just 8.02m. In terms of world level performance this is far below what Rutherford will have to jump in order to challenge for medals. However in the past he has shown himself to be a big championship performer and he won’t be too worried about results at this stage of the season providing he peaks for Moscow.

More encouraging for Eriksson was that not all of the established athletes fared so badly. Eilidh Child ran the 400m hurdles In what is fast becoming one of the British women’s strongest track events in terms of strength in depth. Perry Shakes-Drayton, who is recognised as the British number one, chose instead to run the 400m flat in order to make sure that Britain received maximum points possible from both events and also to sharpen up her flat speed. Child was the fastest in the field by a few hundredths of a second coming into the event, and did not disappoint. She ran a storming race and led from the front from the outset. Her flat speed is noticeably quicker this season, and it seems that the hard work put in over the winter has had a great effect on her whole race. Her time was 54.42 which was a personal best, and is a time that has put her right up there in terms of the worlds best times this year. If she continues to improve for the rest of the season, she may well reach the final and challenge in Moscow.

Shakes-Drayton ran the 400m which is an event she has been running a few times this season, even though the hurdles is her number one priority. She’s mixing up the season which will bode well for her flat speed when doing her preferred event. She won comfortably in 50.50 in a race that she dominated from the start. It was a strong and confident performance in which she ran a European leading time and set a new personal best. She is currently showing great signs of beginning to realise her potential after coming up short at the Olympics in 2012, and her speed endurance has improved remarkably this season. She must certainly be considered one of Britain’s big hopes at making an impact on the world stage this season.

Another established athlete who very rarely disappoints in a British vest is Mo Farah. Farah, double Olympic champion is no stranger to impacting the world stage; he ran in the 5000m here after struggling in his last outing recently in Eugene where he was suffering from illness. In a field which was well below the standard he is used to, he used the event to show off how his training has been progressing. In bizarre circumstances upon hearing the Bell for the final lap, Farah Seemed to imitate the starting blocks before exploding into a full sprint for the final 400m that he had left. He ran a last 400m split of 50.89. To put that into context it was nearly the same time as Perri Shakes-Drayton won her 400m event with, this after running 4600m already. Needless to say he won the race by quite a large margin and did so in a fashion that meant that, while the competition was at a poor level, onlooking rivals for the world Championships in Moscow would have been impressed and fearful of his quite remarkable final lap pace.

While the above athletes provided some positives moving forward, it was the promise shown by the selected young athletes that will really have impressed the new head of UK athletics. In what was arguably the shock and therefore performance of the weekend, Jessica Judd announced herself to the rest of Europe. Judd continued her outstanding start as a senior athlete shocking a world class field in the women’s 800m. In a performance rich with guts, determination and confidence despite her young age, Judd took the front early and never looked back. It was a quite breathtaking performance from the young 18 year old and one that will have the world taking notice of another young British distance runner coming to the fore. She showed maturity beyond her years by get into the front early in a 12 woman field, this is very abnormal for an 800m race and created a lot of bunching behind her. She exhibited a wonderful long stride and ran in a composed manner, as she eclipsed her predicted finish of 5th to bring home maximum points for the team.

Judd wins the 800m, beating a world class field at just 18 years of age

In addition to Judd, another young distance runner to perform admirably was Emelia Gorecka. She continued to really impress Eriksson, who was watching in the stands and roaring with approval, running very well in a gutsy first senior performance in which she achieved second place. Second was a position also achieved by yet another young women’s distance runner when Laura Weightman held on to second place in the 3000m women’s with a dogged display. Having made a breakthrough on the world stage last year under past great Steve Cram’s expert guidance, Weightman will  be very pleased with her result considering the fact that she’s a 1500m runner at best. Not to be outdone by the women, young 1500m runner Charlie Grice also achieved a creditable second place. Grice ran very well in what was a bizarre race in which the Turkish Ozbilen was leading by near 100m going into the last lap after setting an unbelievable pace. Ozbilen won despite a 64 second last lap in which he tied up dramatically. Grice took a big scalp in beating world class Lewandowski of Poland, in an experience which will help him moving forward in his career.

The wonderful performance of such a large number of young distance runners will excite new UK athletics chief Black, and be seen as a nice parting gift from Eriksson, in terms of the future, as his decision to place trust in youth in order to give the international competition experience paid off to a great extent. Eriksson was visibly jubilant at all of the youngsters’ performances while sitting in the stands. Not to be outdone by those youngsters running on the track Sophie Hitchon continued to show promise in the hammer throw she through nearly 73m. In doing so she achieved a lifetime best that also happens to be a national record, and more importantly the A standard needed to qualify automatically for the world championships. She came third overall and will be very proud as she continues to show promise and will continue to get better.

There were mixed results for the rest of the team in a team competition in which Britain finished 3rd, this will be seen as a satisfactory performance when all is considered. In terms of the sprint events, James Dasaulou decided to pull out of the 100 metres in what was seen as a quite bizarre decision considering he did compete in the relay later in the competition. It would have been thought that he would want to capitalise upon his good recent past performances at world level in which he has run low 10.1 seconds runs, making him Britain’s number one on current form. Kilty, his replacement, managed to come fourth in his heat which was run into a huge 4.1m/s headwind making any analysis of the times run quite irrelevant. He finished behind Frenchman Vicault, who is recognised as arguably the top European and has been mightily impressive this season.
Staying with the sprint events, in the women’s 200m Onoura ran a good race and came third behind 2 exceptional athletes. It was a solid performance and will have done her the world of good rub shoulders with such athletes and given her a confidence that she can compete on such a level ahead of the World Championships. After an impressive 2012 in which she competed well at world level, in the 100m hurdles Tiffany Porter continued to show her class in what was quite a low standard for herself to compete. She got the job done with a victory and will be hoping to use this as a steppingstone towards getting into the world Championships final later in the year. One athlete who has come of age this year so far is Nigel Levine after taking the indoor season by storm. He failed to quite live up to his early season form however and will be slightly disappointed at his second place finish. Levine started very well as he attacked the top end showing his growing confidence. Unfortunately he tied up terribly down the home straight and nearly lost second place too,  Krasnov the Russian representative beat him to the tape in an average time running 45.69.

Middle distance runner and Olympic finalist Andrew Osagie showed that in the 800m, he has some form going into the trials. However he will be disappointed to come third as it was largely down to his poor tactics in becoming boxed on the inside lane on the final lap. The field was relatively strong and this test will help him prepare for next weeks Grand Prix in Birmingham. Hannah England tied up badly in the last lap of her event in the 1500m after putting herself in the perfect position, and was very disappointed with her performance. She will need to improve if she is to have a successful season.

Events such as this are very useful in creating a competitive run out for relay teams and on the whole Britain showed much promise this weekend. However, the women’s sprint relay was very sloppy with terrible changeovers, much too safe. They continue to disappoint after not even qualifying for last years Olympic games. In contrast, the men’s sprint relay was very encouraging as they stormed to victory. The changeovers were pretty good, and the win quite convincing in the end. While the time of 38.40 will not be turning any heads on the world stage, it’s a good start to the season and is a good steppingstone towards greater things to come hopefully. The team was relatively strong but can certainly be improved by substituting a couple of the athletes. All in all it was a strong performance and one that builds confidence that they can hopefully progress to the finals at least at the world Championships. They beat a quite strong French team so can be pleased with the scalp of a team of that quality.

The event was rounded off in keeping with tradition, by the 4x400m relays. In both the men’s and women’s 4 x 400m relay, the teams ran extremely professionally and achieved comfortable wins. Both teams proved much too strong for their opposition, and were littered with great individual performances, showing both strength and maturity. It is a testament to the strength in depth of both of these teams that both teams manage to win comfortably without full strength teams. The strength of the 400m hurdle runners has translated well into the 4x400m relay teams, this has led to both genders’ teams looking incredibly strong performance wise, and with great strength in depth going into the world Championships in the summer. In the women’s race, there were stand out performances firstly from Child who continued her blistering form from the 400m hurdles event. She gave Britain an exceptional start and a huge lead on the opposition after the first leg. Christine Thorough showed all her strength in a performance that we have become accustomed to over her career, in bringing the baton home in first after Beaseley and Cox also had ran good strong legs with Britain leading from start to finish. This team has at least two world class athletes that can be added in Perri Shakes-Drayton and Nicola Sanders, so it must be said that they have a real chance of challenging for the World title later this year.

In the men’s race the strength in depth was shown even further as from the team that won the race, only Conrad Williams has been much of a fixture recently when it comes to the big championships. Rhys Williams, Richard Buck and Michael Bingham all ran very solid legs also in a performance which showed superiority of the men’s 400m team at this level of competition. With athletes of the class of Dai Green, Martin Rooney, and Nigel Levine all Still to come into this team, the strength in depth looks quite phenomenal.

The British women dominated the 400m events winning both individual 400m and 400m hurdles in addition to the relay

In general conclusion, Eriksson must be extremely happy with most of the teams performances. The young athletes that he picked did a great job and while this years world championships will almost certainly be too early for any of them to made a noteworthy impact in top level competition, the signs for the future heading up to Rio 2016 are bright. While there is room for disappointment for some of our top athletes performances here, it must be considered that there is still almost two months until the world championships, and so it must be remembered that athletes at the top level will be working towards a peak during the championships themselves. It is not wise to concentrate too much on poor performances this weekend and if anything, it merely will have given the top athletes hoping to compete in Moscow an indicator of where they are in terms of their training. The standard of competition at the European team championship is not one, that in many events, can be translated to world standard. The main positive in addition to the young athletes must most certainly be the performance in the relays. There seems to be a very good team spirit in the camp which has translated to the relay teams, in events that offer a real chance of medals for Britain in world competition this is positive moving forward. In his short stint as UK head of athletics, Peter Eriksson will be happy that in this tournament he was able to show glimpses of a new era of athletes that he has been nurturing over the last 6 months. It is certainly a shame he wont be able to help them fulfil their potential, but Neil Black is inheriting some great new talents as a result. Everyone will wish Eriksson well in his future endeavours.

Is Cook too safe? Is this an ‘English’ problem?

As a huge summer of sport for England against the old enemy Australia approaches boiling point, teams from both nations are being studied and analysed thoroughly both in the media and by their opponents. While player comparisons are compiled and tactics have been drawn, one subject that has been at the forefront of many peoples minds in recent weeks has been the decision of Cook as captain to regularly play very safe in order to ensure his team does not have any chance of losing.

After England failed to win the away series in New Zealand earlier this year, pressure was on for England to deliver a pre ashes confidence boost in a 2 match series on home turf.

It was firstly a decision at the Headingley test against New Zealand when 1-0 up in the series, which disturbed many fans and pundits alike. Both were unhappy that Cook didn’t have the killer instinct to go for the win earlier after England had skittled New Zealand out in less than a day, and failed to enforce the follow on even with the risk of bad weather to come. Rather than be confident of the fact that they had steamrollered through the NZ team hours before, and could do it again, Cook decided to ensure that the series was safe at the expense of the individual test. In the ICC champions trophy semi final weeks later, England got off to a quite magnificent start reducing South Africa to 86-8 with Anderson and Tredwell wreaking havoc. While making some great decisions to get his team to such a position, it was the decisions after that which split fans and pundits alike. With the SA number 10 coming in to bat and Anderson, England’s most devastating wicket taker of all time in one day internationals, having 3 overs remaining of his allotted 10, a ruthless captain would have brought Anderson back on to clean up the tail. However Cook’s decision to bring on his part time bowlers Bopara and Root, in order to use up their overs, showed that even at 86-8 Cook was still wary of losing the game. What would have been expected as a quick clear up of the tail turned into what was approaching a 100 run partnership, putting unexpected longevity into a game which could have been wrapped up far earlier.

The fact is that on both of these occasions England rallied to win the game and therefore some credit must be given to Cook in that his decisions ultimately paid off and didn’t cost England the win. However at the very top end of sport where margins between success and failure are so small, the “great” teams are those who know when to be ruthless, show a killer instinct and have confidence in their own ability. It is a well known cliché in sport that those who are at the highest level let their opponents worry about them rather than being concerned how they may lose, as they trust in their own ability to be the best. This is a killer instinct that the great Australian team of the 90s and early 00s had in abundance. When ahead they punished teams and trusted their own ability to win from any position; they were not beaten until it was an absolutely impossible task in which case they then settled for a draw. This killer instinct is one which England have failed to display lately and is one that creates doubts in their ability to win the back to back ashes series coming up, even despite the fact you’d be pressed to find even the most passionate Australian that would disagree that England are the far superior side in terms of talent.

Steve Waugh’s all conquering Australian team dominated all forms of cricket for over a decade. Their confidence was symbolised by their ability to score at a very high run rate resulting in them often winning test matches within four days, and chasing scores which lesser teams would decide not to pursue instead battling solely for a draw.

Is this down to Cook himself, or the England players and staff? Or is it perhaps something which is ingrained far deeper into English sport ideals?  England as a sporting nation are known to be the great underachievers, the country that has talent but doesn’t reach their potential and most relevant to this issue: a nation who plays safe and often does well without reaching the top. It is very rare that England are in any sport, known as the great entertainers. It is most often the case that they create a strong defensive foundation and try to win by taking only calculated high percentage risks.

A sport other than cricket in which this has been highlighted is Rugby Union. Even when England were quite clearly the best team in the world when winning the 2003 world cup, success was built around a strong defensive foundation in which they kicked for the corners, relied on Wilkinson’s amazing kicking of penalties and generally played low risk rugby. The team was a great one of that there is no doubt, however the mentality of England shone through. In recent years when not possessing a great team ready to challenge southern hemisphere supremacy, England have continued with a safety first style of play. In this style the “flair” positions in the team, namely those in the back 3 and the centres,  lack the skills, flair and vision of those playing the same positions for the other leading nations. England tend to line up with wingers who are at least as good defensively as they are attacking, not game winners but rather game savers. Arguments may be made that the English talent pool doesn’t possess flair players in such positions, but what is clear is that English mentality means that England are not prepared to take a risk in order to have the chance to reach that top level of the game. A level in which teams who trail their top level opponents are able to express their talent and flair to score tries and claw opponents back, at the risk of losing by a slightly larger margin. It is a fine balance but one in which teams that are winning trust their own ability to win by more points rather than hanging on valiantly to a small victory.

In the past week, at the under 20s world cup semi final, England’s youngsters dominated their New Zealand counterparts in a style which is more in keeping with the heritage of their opponents. Unlike their senior counterparts there was no fear in expressing themselves, and their rugby was both exciting and ruthless as they comfortably beat the pre tournament favourites in magnificent style. This begs the question as to whether such exuberance and flair is actually coached out of youngsters as they enter the senior international fold, as they adapt to the teams culture. Very rarely have players in the ilk of the explosive, tricky Jason Robinson cement themselves in an England 15 in recent times, and even when they do it seems that they slowly become more hesitant in possession as a result of being too scared to trust in their own ability at the risk of giving up possession or points (Ashton is often guilty of this).

Wallaby legend Campese believed in 2003:Boring England tarnish game as “Rugby needs to entice people in. Here in Australia it has to compete with league and Aussie Rules, and the way England play just sends people away in droves.”

A new coaching structure and team have in recent years been implemented and it will be fascinating to see whether focus will be on playing a more expansive game, as displayed in the youth teams and recently by a young England side in destroying Argentina on tour; or whether as the past has often shown us, the players will adapt to England’s conservative style. It can be argued that there is evidence to suggest that young players do not arrive at the national team in such a mindset, and therefore could be the case that it is a mentality thrust upon the players.

What is more worrying is that addition to the above sports, English conservatism seems to have also been adopted by the national football team. Mercurial young talents such as Matt Le Tissier, Joe Cole and to some extent Wayne Rooney have either, to coin a phrase ‘had their wings clipped’ while playing for the national side, or in Le Tissier’s case, been left out all together due to the expressive but luxury natured style in which they play the game. In an era dominated by the fluid, interchanging, expressive systems implemented by Brazil and Spain alike, England have stood still so to speak. England are often a clear bet in any major tournament to reach the quarter finals, however to achieve anything more than this England must beat sides packed of individual brilliance. The problem has often not been a lack of talent but rather a lack of mental toughness and ruthlessness. In teams containing the individual brilliance to match their rivals, English flair players have often been stifled by having to stick to structured positions in a rigid defensive formation(often 442), in direct contrast to the interchanging fluidity of the brilliant Spanish team.

A great example which epitomises this point is that England have recently begun to mirror the top teams in the world in terms of formation. Namely by playing a 4 2 3 1 system in which two defensive midfielders shield the back four in order to allow the front 4 players to express themselves and be match winners. Progress at last we thought; we were wrong. The difference in England’s system is that they play one striker (Rooney), One attacking winger (usually Walcott), but then usually insist on picking a defensive winger (often Milner) and a central midfielder pushed slightly further forward (Lampard). In a system based around having 6 defensive players and four very attacking individuals ahead of them, England prefer the stability in changing such a system to a 7 or 8 defensive player bias to just 2 or 3 attackers. While this strategy means that the England side rarely loses, it also results in them drawing many games, and when coming up against the better sides they fall short. It is of no coincidence that the only time in the most recent European championships that England outplayed their opposition, was after they fell behind against Sweden and proceeded to bring on attacking substitutes resulting in 4 attacking players being asked to express themselves and attack, and in turn an England win. Until the management starts to believe in the quality of their own players, and play a style in which they impose their own ability on the opposition, England will never be ruthless enough to win or challenge for a major trophy

Even with all of the above having been taken into account, it is by no means conclusive that more success would result from a style incorporating more risk; however confidence in the teams’ own ability epitomises any top team and can only be of help. Until English teams have such a confidence there is a good chance that they will fail to reach the very top of any team sport. Evidence points to the fact that at least in recent times, an ‘Englishness’ has become evident in which teams have adopted a sense of caution and a style of safety first. With the cricket side in particular on the cusp of being known as a truly great side, all that is missing is a confidence, bordering on arrogance, that they are the best team in the world and one that believes in it’s own ability to always get the job done no matter the task. Only then will they become a team to rival the Australia side of the last decade, as true greats. It may be the case that rather than criticise decisions made by captains such as Cook, it would be more beneficial to challenge the culture in English sports which may have shaped his decisions.