Our four athletics Scholars review the 2014 outdoor season
By Sam Drury
Last Updated: 26/03/17 2:15pm
You could have been forgiven for looking at the calendar for the 2014 athletics season and thinking that with no Olympic Games or World Championships it might be a rather low key year, even with two major championships over the summer.
However, despite the lack of a global championship, there were plenty of opportunities for the world’s best athletes to showcase their talent from the Commonwealth Games to the European Championships, as well as another fantastic Diamond League series.
With four of our Sky Academy Sports Scholars aiming to really make their mark in the sport of the next few years, we asked them to identify the standout performers and select their highlights from the outdoor campaign.
Holly Bleasdale (Pole vault)
Commonwealth Games
“I thought it was amazing to watch and the English team did amazingly. The atmosphere is always electric at British meets and it was similar to the Olympics in that there were full crowds, even in the morning sessions. I thought Glasgow did an amazing job. The performances were of a really high standard too. England do tend to get quite a lot of medals at the Commonwealths anyway because the fields perhaps aren’t quite as strong as at the Worlds or Olympics.
"Adam Gemili was the standout performance for me, he did amazingly well. All of our relays teams, especially the 4x400m men were amazing with Matthew Hudson-Smith. The men’s pole vault was good with Luke Cutts and Steve Lewis. I mean, the standard wasn’t great but for Steve to win his first championship and Luke to get silver was good. It’s a shame that some of the other boys in that field who had the potential weren’t able to get bronze. The women’s pole vault as well was good to watch, my training partner (Sally Peake) got the silver medal which was nice and a great effort in those weather conditions. My mum was there as a volunteer games maker and she said it was an amazing experience."
Standout performers
“I think there have been a few. Renaud (Lavillenie, pole vault) has won his fifth Diamond League race in a row, he won the Europeans, that was amazing, he’s been really, really good. I’m really happy for James Dasaolu. People have always doubted him and said he can only perform in a one-off race but he’s shown this year that he can run back to back and he won the Europeans. I thought British Athletics did brilliantly at the Europeans to win 12 gold medals, that was great. I think because I focus more on sprinting and field events I sometimes forget some of the track events but I think Jo Pavey did really well, especially at 40, and then another one of the standouts was Adam (Gemili). I get on really, really well with Adam and I think he really deserved the medals that he won."
Surprise package
“Some of the female sprinters like Ashleigh Nelson in the 100m winning a bronze medal (at the European Championships) and coming fourth in the Commonwealths, considering she was up against all the Jamaicans. The women’s relay has been really good. When I look back to 2012 and we didn’t even enter a relay team because they kept dropping the baton, it wasn’t that great. So to pull it around and get a British record twice in a season has been really impressive. What I’ve been excited most about this season though has been the men’s high jump. I know there are no Brits in it but it has just been amazing. I get on well with (Mutaz Essa) Barshim and I’ve been spurring him on all season. For five guys to go over 2.40m is incredible. I think Barshim and (Bohdan) Bondarenko are a little bit above the rest but I definitely think that has been the highlight event of the year to watch."
Jessica Judd (800m)
Standout performers
“I always think about the 800m and 1500m, I think Laura Weightman has been great from a British perspective, to get two medals at both championships in the 1500m is amazing. I love watching the 1500m because of the tactics and tactically she got things right every time. I think at world level, Ajee Wilson in the 800m. To run 1:57 was incredible, she just beat me at world juniors and now to run that time is unbelievable. The way she did it in Monaco - I was in that race and didn’t run very well - but to see her go off like that and just keep it going was amazing. When she did it, and because I didn’t run very well, I just thought ‘oh no, she’s run amazingly.’
"It was really selfish on my part because I’d just run rubbish and she’s just run a fantastic time, but seeing that is inspirational. I know I can work hard to try and achieve that. She’s only a year older than me so to be doing that at such a young is fantastic and she’s such a nice person as well. I’m really happy for her and it’s given me more of a drive now as well. It has made me more determined to get closer to that and with the 1500m as well after watching how well Laura did, I think I’d like to give 1500m a go and just see what happens.
"Someone else from Britain who did well was Laura Muir. I know she was disappointed with how the Commonwealths and Europeans went but if you look at her whole season, she has achieved so much. I mean to run four minutes flat in the 1500m is just amazing and two minutes for 800m as well – both distances are there. It’s good and it shows that British middle-distance running is going well at the moment; it’s just keeping up with those girls now! It’s exciting times now I think."
Surprise package
“In my event everyone has been around a while, obviously Lynsey has had a great year this year after being out last season with injury. At the start of the year she said she ran 2:06 so to then come on and run twice under 1:59 is amazing. I don’t think anyone has burst through, I think everyone has been there or thereabouts. It was nice to see the Scottish girls living up to Glasgow and seeing them in front of a home crowd. It was pretty much like a home Games for us as well. I think everyone just improved on where they were last year and I think that will happen again next year with the World Championships and then the year after is Rio, and even following that it’s the World Championships in London in 2017. We’ve got three big years and it’s just going to get more and more competitive. It’s exciting but we’re really, really strong and even to get on one of those teams is hard now."
Olivia Breen (T38 100m/ long jump)
Standout performer
“Margarita Goncharova, who is a Russian in my class, she won four gold medals in the Europeans. She’s run really well. Last year she had a bit of a hard season, like me, because there were a lot of new people coming in and we were a bit shocked but now we’ve got ourselves together. But she is the big one who stands out. When she was my age, she was doing similar times to what I’m doing now and I’m following her pathway. She is someone I look up to because we’re similar in that we’ve got the same disability. She’s really good and she’s really nice as well so it is good to have that friendship even if on the track we’re not friends!"
Louis Persent (400m)
Standout performers
“I’d say the men’s and women’s sprinting. I think you can really say that GB is one of the top sprinting nations in the world at the moment, across all the events. It’s so good to see people in my event pushing on because there has been a few years where the event has kind of stagnated. This year has been a really good jolt to the event to liven things up again. It’s been good just being able to watch really great sprinters in both the women’s and men’s events."
Surprise package
“Matt Hudson-Smith had an amazing season in his first season doing 400m but I wouldn’t say it’s surprising because it felt like everyone had been running 45-second times for so long and the event goes in cycles. Obviously I was hoping that I could be the one pushing the event on but I welcome it and it is the best thing to see your competitors and team-mates in the relay running fast because it forces everyone to up their game. I think I’m quite a motivated person as it is but it’s good to see the event exciting other people."