KJT and Georgia Bell won English Schools titles 16 years ago and, while many of their contemporaries disappeared, they went on to win Olympic medals this summer
The weekend of July 11-13 in 2008 is one of the busiest I’ve ever known while working at AW. As the British Olympic trials for Beijing unfolded in Birmingham, the World Under-20 Championships took place in Bydgoszcz and the English Schools Championships were held in Gateshead.
Reporting on the action for AW, I attempted an ambitious Gateshead-Birmingham double and it was a good move with hindsight as the schools event in particular provided an amazing glimpse into the future.
Katarina Thompson (as she was known then) kicked off my coverage of the inter girls’ age group at the English Schools and I described her as “undoubtedly the most impressive all-round athlete at these championships”.
I added: “She has won 12 national title at events as varied as 300m, high jump and long jump but had to pick just one event at Gateshead. Would it be unlucky No.13? No chance. Looking every bit a star in the making, Thompson won the high jump by six centimetres with 1.80m. Why did she choose that event? ‘I just enjoy it more than others!’ she said.”
On the following page of our 2008 coverage there is a photo of a young Georgia Bell winning the junior girls’ 800m in 2:09.28. Next to her are images of Emelia Gorecka winning the 3000m and Jodie Williams taking 100m victory – just some of the many notable names at the event.
Sixteen years later and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, as she’s now known, is world champion and Olympic silver medallist in the heptathlon (I guess she was never quite able to settle on a favourite event) while Bell broke the British 1500m record in Paris when claiming Olympic bronze. Williams, meanwhile, was competing in her third Olympics in Paris as part of the bronze medal winning GB 4x400m squad.
It became something of a trend on social media during the Paris Olympics for people to post photos of medallists when they were much younger. For those who enjoy such coverage, the 2008 English Schools was full of interesting results and images.
On a sad note, AW’s photographer at those English Schools, Keith Mayhew, sadly died in 2021 after falling ill with Covid. This 2008 event aside, he also took a photo of Dina Asher-Smith winning English Schools gold that we used on our front cover in 2013, long before she became well-known.
If you were at any of these events in years gone by and want to take a jog down memory lane then you can now access our old issues via our new digital archive.
An eye for talent
My powers of prediction are pretty hopeless. At those 2008 English Schools, for instance, I remember two or three young athletes really catching my eye but their performances fizzled out by the time they reached their 20s.
I also rarely bet on athletics (maybe a couple of times a year at most) and recent bets have included Cole Hocker and Tara Davis-Woodhall to win major titles, although sadly I didn’t have any money on them in Paris!
Far more successful is my long-time colleague Steve Smythe, whose AW predictions ended up topping the Track & Field Tours Olympic predictions contest. A sign, perhaps, that at least one of us knows what we’re talking about.
British field events withering on the vine
One sadly predictable aspect of the 2024 Paris Games was the lack of success in field events for Britain. With pole vaulter Molly Caudery under-performing, it was left to Jacob Fincham-Dukes to fly the flag with fifth place in the long jump.
A hopelessly optimistic goal promoted by UK Athletics in 2020 was to strive to “fill the team” by having athletes in every single track and field event by 2032. In the current scenario, though, it looks pretty unlikely and appears to have been quietly abandoned by the current UKA bosses.
Does UKA have a plan to invest in field events, though? Or is the governing body content for them to wither on the vine while the nation instead maximises medal prospects on the track?
In a recent interview with AW, 1984 Olympic javelin champion Tessa Sanderson said she would be glad to offer some help and advice if she was asked. I’m sure other legendary athletes like Steve Backley, Ashia Hansen, Jonathan Edwards and others would be the same.
As long as I can remember, retired athletes have repeatedly told AW during interviews “we’d love to help but no one ever asks”. Has anyone ever asked Meg Ritchie how she’s managed to hold the British discus record since 1981, for example?
Meg Ritchie (Mark Shearman)
No welcome home party (again)
Another gaping hole in the world of British athletics is the lack of a post-Games ‘welcome home’ meeting. The London Diamond League last month was a great success but there is nothing in the UK for the end of season period. Instead, Brits are travelling to Lausanne, Silesia, Rome, Zurich, Brussels and elsewhere to find late season competition.
Britain’s medal haul in Paris was the most successful since LA in 1984. Yet after those Olympics 40 years ago there was, among other things, a Nike Classic meeting in Crystal Palace a few days after the close of the Games featuring athletes like Carl Lewis, Kathy Cook, Todd Bennett and Shirley Strong plus an IAC Coca-Cola event, also at Crystal Palace, in early September.
I wrote about this at length after the World Champs 12 months ago and nothing has changed. But we can live in hope that something might materialise after the 2025 World Champs in Tokyo, or beyond.
When grassroots athletics clashes with the Olympics on TV
The British Milers’ Club Grand Prix came to a conclusion in Bury on Saturday August 10 and saw another spate of fine performances. I felt a bit sorry for the athletes involved, though, many of whom would surely have wanted to watch the final track and field session at the Paris Olympics on television?
It’s hard to criticise the BMC for the sterling work they’ve put in over the years. And this isn’t a major grumble by any means. But couldn’t the organisers have tweaked their timetable to avoid a clash with arguably the biggest athletics night of the year?
Do grassroots football or rugby teams schedule matches to coincide with world cup finals?
Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
An acid test for middle-distance runners
I wonder how many middle-distance runners at the BMC event in Bury prepared for their race by taking the ultra-fashionable Bicarb System – the soup-like substance made by Maurten which buffers acid in the muscles and prevents runners from tying up.
Certainly in Paris it was all the rage. Keely Hodgkinson is certainly known to use it, whereas Max Burgin, Britain’s 800m finalist, told AW that pretty much all the 800m runners used it.
Middle-distance runners aside, I heard that perhaps 70-75% of 400m sprinters were taking it in Paris. I even overheard an American 10,000m competitor joking that she was well stocked up on it ahead of remaining races this season.
No filming for Olympic journalists
Eagle-eyed followers of AW may have noticed we didn’t post as many video interviews on our social media channels as usual during the Olympics. This is because the IOC banned it and we were met with notices that said “no filming in mixed zone” when we arrived in the Stade de France.
Apparently television channels are annoyed at spending a fortune for broadcast rights, only to see smaller media outlets unleashing video interviews with athletes without paying for the privilege.
It means journalists like myself and my colleague Euan Crumley resorted to using our dictaphones for audio interviews only. It felt like going back in time to a decade or so ago, although we’re confident things will return to normal next year at the World Champs in Tokyo.
Why the Games spluttered to an end…
As for those mixed zones, with dozens of journalists packed together at close quarters they are clearly a breeding ground for germs. I returned from Paris to discover I had Covid, for example, and I doubt I was alone.
Noah Lyles was a high-profile Covid casualty but there are doubtless many other victims. Jakob Ingebrigtsen was certainly being pretty sensible when he went through the mixed zone wearing a mask during interviews.
When it came to athletes wearing a mask, he was in the minority as well. Similarly, athletes and media were merrily shaking hands all week in the French capital. What short memories we have…
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