GB’s final tally of six track and field medals is its best since Seoul 1988, outstripping the minimum of five that United Kingdom Athletics required to guarantee its funding from UK Sport for the next four years.
There is one little issue. Charles van Commenee, head coach at UKA, had set a medal target of eight. He had also promised to resign if he failed to deliver on his promise.
Van Commenee, among other traits, is stubborn. So will he now walk away, even as the nation is still celebrating Farah’s second gold, and how hard should the sport try to keep him?
“Knowing Charles he will be disappointed, because from what he said I think he had a good feeling about the athletes coming into these championships,” says Denise Lewis, coached by Van Commenee to Olympic heptathlon gold in Sydney 12 years ago.
“He really had high expectations because of what they had shown, the attitude and factoring in the crowd’s elevation. At the same time, who would change those four fantastic gold medals?”
Colin Jackson, former 100m hurdles world champion and record holder says: “Charles cannot walk away with four gold medals and be disappointed.
“It was a tremendous job done by those British athletes and I like the diversity of those medals that we won.
