The World Athletics Championship 2007

N and I watched some of this over last weekend and I couldn't help thinking that the Great Britain Team will have its work cut out if it intends to do well in the medal stakes for the London 2012 Olympics - certainly in the track and field events. I checked out the medal table to see that we came tenth overall with 5 medals in total. For a country with a population in excess of 56 million people it (theoretically) really should be better. The Czech Republic, Germany and Australia all came higher. It was noticeable that we were missing from many of the events presumably because we have no one capable of qualifying. I can't ever recall having seen a British pole vaulter for instance!

I reckon the reasons for our poor showing are as follows... most young people have utterly no interest in it. Kids want fame and money and all the trappings that go with a sport such as football and you are never going to get it in track and field etc. It requires years of dedication and training to get to the top and very few kids can be arsed to do it. They want it now and they want it with little or no effort.

It's a shame. I'm sure the London Olympics will be extremely well presented, the stadia and facilities will be fantastic... but I really cannot see us being one of the leading countries.