GB RELAYING THE PATH TO GLORY
GREAT BRITAIN’S patchy recent history when it comes to Olympic sprint relays means that come Rio they will be watched with great intrigue this summer.
Four years ago Britain’s women didn’t qualify for the 4x100m while the men suffered the familiar ignominy of disqualification after a changeover failure in the heat but this time round each quartet goes into the Olympics with realistic medal ambitions and an eye on making a dent into UK Sport’s demands of between seven and nine medals from the country’s track and field stars.
Strong showings at the European Championships in Amsterdam earlier this month, in which the men came home with gold and the women with silver, give cause for cautious optimism, not least for the consistent selection process which saw both the men’s and women’s team run the same four in each round.
The importance of familiarity and consistency in relay running, and simply not over-complicating things, is an under-rated aspect and one which Jason Gardener, lead-off runner in the gold medal-winning quartet of 2004 – GB’s last Olympic relay medal – says was vital to their victory 12 years ago.