Bleacher Report - Articles by Mike Trusler

Team Great Britain and What Went Wrong: Pride, Passion, and Disbelief

Mike Trusler — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:24:39 -0400

Today, Britain welcomed home its heroes from China at Heathrow airport. British Airways painted the nose of the plane gold, and the media lined up to greet the mass of athletes and medalists home as heroes for making Beijing the best Games Team GB has had for over 100 years.

Athens 2004 saw one of the smallest squads to come from these isles in many a year, yet they achieved a lot. Kelly Holmes and Amir Khan were notable success stories to come out from Greece.

Just over a month ago one of the best funded and biggest teams flew to the Team GB training camp in Macau, ready for the Games. Back in the UK there was little hype about these Games, with "moderate" targets set for our team.

What followed was more than even the most ambitious people could have dreamed of.

Before the Games, double gold medal winner James Cracknell sent them a letter which was on the wall in Team GB's HQ:

"What truly matters is that you can look into the mirror after you have competed and tell the person staring back: 'There was nothing more I could have done.'

"If you can't say that, you'll always regret it and wonder what would have happened if you had given everything. Don't feel like that. Leave all you've got on the field of play."

This set the tone for the Olympics in the GB camp.

Team GB first struck gold on Day Two of the Games, when Nicole Cooke won the women's road race in atrocious conditions. Team GB was off the mark in style and the next day saw Rebecca Adlington and Joanne Jackson take gold and bronze respectively in the same women's 400m freestyle swimming event.

Day Four saw three more medals: one silver and two bronze. David Florence won silver in men's canoe slalom, and the eventing team won both bronzes. Day Five saw the start of a rush for Britain when Emma Pooley gained a silver in the women's time-trial cycling.

Day Seven saw Chris Hoy, Jamie Staff, and Jason Kenny win gold in the men's team sprint. Then came Saturday, Aug. 16, the day the UK stood up and took note of what was happening on the other side of the world.

That day, Day Eight, saw nine medals added to the tally. Rebecca Adlington scored gold in the women's 800m freestyle in fantastic style, with a new world record. Cyclists then took center stage, with Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy claiming golds in the individual events and Ross Edgar scoring silver in the Keirin behind Hoy to claim a one-two finish.

The men's four also won gold, but that wasn't the last from the Velodrome. Chris Newton and Steven Burke scored bronzes and two rowing bronzes boosted the medal tally.

Day Nine saw eight more medals added, with Rebecca Romero (cycling), Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase (rowing), Ben Ainslie (sailing), and Sarah Ayton, Sharah Webb, and Pippa Wilson (yngling) all winning golds.

Three silvers followed from the worlds of cycling and rowing, as well as a brilliant bronze for Louis Smith in the gymnastics on the pummel horse.

Day 10 saw a gold and a silver in cycling and sailing respectively. Day 11 saw sailing again generate a gold and two cycling golds with Chris Hoy winning gold No. 3 and Pendleton adding to the tally. But Christine Ohuruogu's gold made for Team GB's first athletics medal.

Before the Games, the target was five of these athletics medals and Germaine Mason added a silver and number two on the same day, with another silver medalist in the cycling (Wendy Houvenhagel). Open water swimming added a silver and a bronze, while windsurfing added another bronze.

Athletics medal No. 3 came courtesy of Natasha Danvers in the 400m hurdles as she provided a bronze. Team GB struck gold again in sailing and also earned two silvers from David Davies in the grueling open water swim and Philips Idowu in the triple jump.

Days 14-15 saw two golds, a single silver, and four bronzes. Tim Brabants won a gold and a bronze, and Sarah Stevenson got a bronze after drama in the taekwondo. James DeGale won Britain's last gold and overall medal in one of three medals in boxing.

Team GB finished fourth overall in the medal table, giving Russia a run for their medals but succumbing at the last hurdle (excuse the pun). However, Britain's failure in athletics has left the Head of UK Athletics Dave Collins sweating about his future.

UK Athletics set a target of five medals, however only four were won, and only one was a gold. Britain's poor showing in the track and field events were summed up on the last evening of competition, when the men's and women's 4x400m relay teams failed to win a medal and the much favoured Lisa Dobriskey could only manage fourth in the 1500m.

Britain's lack of depth in middle and long distance appalled many, with only one British athlete taking part in the men's marathon in Dan Robinson. I admire him for what he did, but the pace of the leading group was just too much for him.

BBC pundit and 1976 Olympic bronze medalist at 10,000m Brendan Foster made a scathing attack on Britain's middle and long distance runners after Mo Farah went out in the men's 5000m heats. Foster said:

"I am very, very disappointed. I just feel Mo Farah ran a very poor race. He needs to be taught how to run tactically. He's got a good finish but it was wasted. We've got nobody in the men's 10,000m, we are relying on Dan Robinson in the marathon, Andy Baddeley was ninth in the 1500m, we haven't got anyone in the steeplechase.

"We had a national record in the women's steeplechase but that was still half a minute slower than the winner. We had nothing in the 5000m and we were 12th in the women's 10,000m. In the women's marathon, Mara Yamauchi did very well to finish sixth but Paula Radcliffe and Liz Yelling did not run at all well.

"Mo Farah only needed to get 13 minutes and 37 seconds to get through; 20 years ago, people were running 13 minutes 20 seconds and we can't get to 13 minutes 37 seconds."

Only Yamauchi in the marathon came close, and Collins can claim no credit for her because she lives and trains in Tokyo with Japanese runners. For those Collins is responsible for, only three British men made it to individual track finals, out of 10 possible events, but not 10 athletes.

Martyn Rooney reached the final of the 400m, which was good, and we can't blame Michael Rimmer for his ill health in the 800m. But it shouldn't just be Michael in the 800m. There should be more than one athlete in that event with him. We had one athlete in the 200m final and none in the 100m final.

There needs to be a shake up in UK Athletics, and they must take examples from other sports such as sailing, rowing, and cycling.

In 2012, London will host the iconic games. UK Athletics has only four years to make Britain proud again.

To finish on a lighter note, finishing fourth in the medal's table is a massive achievement that whole of the UK should be proud of and should build on for 2012.

Beating everyone in the world bar China, USA, and Russia is an achievement we should all be proud of.

Formula One Fathers and Sons: Chasing the Dream in the Shadow of Your Elders

Mike Trusler — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:22:36 -0400

"If you think I'm good, just wait until you see my nephew Bruno," said Ayrton Senna late in 1993 about his young apprentice. However, not long after these words of praise, Ayrton had passed on, bringing young Bruno's career to an abrupt halt for a time.

In 2005 the talent that one of, if not the, greatest driver had spoken about was on show when Bruno resurfaced and raced in British Formula BMW and Formula Renault.

No sooner had he joined than he had moved onto the British Formula Three International Series racing for Räikkönen Robertson Racing, archieving numerous podium finishes in seven races.

It was around this time that the Senna name was back in the rumour mill and the media focused attention on shy Bruno, making the inevitable comparisons to his uncle.

In 2006, he entered the British F3 championship and won the first two events, only to fade away and finish a respectable third place overall.

But this didn't dampen his spirits as he exclaimed to the motor racing world that he is "targeting a seat on the Formula One grid by 2009." But for the meantime, the Formula One feeder series, GP2, became Senna's hunting ground and a place to hone his skills.

He signed to drive for the Red Bull-sponsored Arden International team. Although Senna didn't win the championship with Arden, it was still a positive step on the whole for him, with a top-10 finish in only his third full year of single-seater racing, with one win and three podiums.

To help boost and realize his dream, he moved to iSport International, with constant comparisons to Ayrton still around.

This placed added pressure on Bruno—however, every cloud has a silver lining.

Toro Rosso team chief Gerhard Berger is a close friend of the Senna family and has advised young Bruno on his career. He was recently linked with a drive for Toro Rosso to replace young superstar Sebastian Vettel. This would allow him to achieve his target and dream of reaching the pinnacle of racing by 2009.

However, the Senna name isn't the only name to be recycled back into F1. Younger generations certainly aren't a new thing to the Formula One World Championship. This started as early as 1950, when Alberto Ascari followed in his father Antonio's footsteps to great success

Two of the most famous sons of famous fathers raced for the same team in 1996 when Jaques Villeneuve and Damon Hill joined up at Williams. That year Hill became the first ever world champion son to accompany a world champion father.

A year later in 1997, Villeneuve dethroned Hill and did something his father never lived to do. He won the world championship. Hill is currently mentoring the third generation of Hills to enter motorsports. Maybe one day we will see the Hill name back at the top.

However, sometimes the sons don't live up to their fathers' names.

Michael Andretti tried and failed in his attempt to emulate his father's achievements in a highly challenging and un-competitive season for McLaren in 1993.

Jackie Stewart's son Paul started racing in 1989. Jackie supported his son all the way, even to the extent that he started Paul Stewart Racing in 1991.

After two seasons, Paul realized he would never be good enough to race in F1 and gave up driving to manage Paul Stewart Racing, which eventually became Stewart Racing in 1997.

Williams have two young, fast, up-and-coming drivers with one thing in common: they both have famous fathers with F1 pedigree.

Nico Rosberg, son of 1982 world champion Keke, and Kazuki Nakajima, son of former Lotus driver Satoru.

When Nico hit the F1 scene in 2006, every pore in the 20-year-old's body oozed the same self-confident signal: "I'm simply the best."

In late 2007 he was joined by Kazuki, 20 years after his father's debut at the the same event, the Brazilian GP.

Not only does the 2008 Formula One world championship boast of two sons of former drivers, but a third in Nelson Piquet, Jr.

So how long will it be before we see Hamilton Jr. or Räikkönen Jr. on the F1 grid? And does having a famous father add pressure on a driver?