Williamson wins 100m gold medal

The track saw some of Britain’s best hopes gain podium positions and record personal bests namely Simeon Williamson who won Team GBR’s only gold medal of the Games.

The European under 23 champion had to run his 100m final twice following the officials ruling that the Middlesex University student had false started. He finished even quicker in the second run, crossing the line in 10.22 seconds.

“To be honest my first thought was “what has gone wrong this time?” said the 21-year-old after the replay. “In all seriousness though, I am delighted to have won the race, as I thought I’d already done it and it was hard to take last night when I heard the decision,” he added.

“I didn’t think I had any more to give but I had no choice but to find it somewhere!”

Williamson was also a member of the men’s 4x400m relay team that narrowly missed out on a podium position by a hundredth of a second. Williamson, along with Darren Chin (St. Mary’s), Simon Farrendon (Leeds Metropolitan) and Ryan Scott (University of Bath) were pipped on the line to bronze by China in a race won by the host nation.

There were other success stories when Kadi-Ann Thomas produced a great run to record a personal best time of 23.28 seconds and come second behind Iryna Shtangyeyeva of the Ukraine in the women’s 200m. The Brunel student had earlier come second in her semi-final to qualify, and she did so again to grab Britain’s second medal on the track at the Games.

“I’m delighted to have medaled here,” said the Marshal Milton Keynes runner.

“I’ve never had to run four times in a single event and to do so over two days is tough. However, it was the same for everyone and I’m so pleased with my performance,” she added.

On one of the hottest days of the Games, Charlotte Best set a new personal best to finish third in the women’s 800m, whilst the women’s 4x400m relay team also came home third.
Best finished in 2:01.50 behind Yuliya Krevson of the Ukraine and Russia’s Ekatevina Kostetskaya to grab Britain’s third medal on the track and was delighted with the result, especially given the tight schedule of the event.

“I’m so surprised I ran a PB after three races in four days,” said the Loughborough student.

“As far as the race itself is concerned, I remember going past the girls in fourth and fifth to get myself into contention, but after that it’s a bit of a blur,” she added.

The penultimate event of both the evening and the athletics programme saw Britain’s 4x400m relay team win bronze. Kelly Massey (Liverpool John Moores), Laura Finucane (Loughborough), Kadi-Ann Thomas (Brunel) and Faye Harding (Loughborough) recorded a time of 3:33.70 behind the Ukraine and Russia to finish third, with Thomas winning her second medal in as many days. The medal also made up for Finucane’s disappointment at finishing outside of the medals in the 800m.

The rest of the squad taken to the Games had an overall positive success in Bangkok only narrowly missing out on medals. On the track, Richard Buck (Leeds Metropolitan) came sixth in the men’s 400m, Darren Chin (St.Mary’s) finished sixth in the men’s 200m, Jermaine Mays (University of the Arts) finished tenth in the 3,000m steeplechase whilst Richard Hill (UWIC) came seventh in the men’s 800m.

Elsewhere Steve Green (Bath) unfortunately fell on the home straight of the 400m hurdles and William Sharman of Loughborough made it through to the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles but was unable to qualify for the medal race.

In the field events, Martyn Bernard of Liverpool John Moores University finished fifth in the men’s high jump.

September 2007